Early modern · 1469–1527
Who influenced Niccolò Machiavelli?
Influences and legacy
Separated politics from moral philosophy and looked at power as it is, not as it should be.
Niccolò Machiavelli was influenced by Cicero and Plutarch, and went on to influence Montesquieu. That is 3 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: Santi di Tito, Public domain See the whole map
Who was Niccolò Machiavelli?
Machiavelli served the Florentine Republic for years as secretary of its second chancery, handling diplomatic and military affairs, while the Medici were out of power. When they returned in 1512 he lost his post, was wrongly suspected of treason and exiled, and turned to political writing. He is often called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.
His best-known work, The Prince (written around 1513, published 1532), breaks with classical thought by advising rulers to do evil when political necessity demands it, which made his name a byword for unscrupulous politics. His Discourses on Livy, by contrast, has been credited with paving the way for modern republicanism and influenced Rousseau and James Harrington.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Niccolò Machiavelli?
2 direct influences on this map, earliest first.
Who did Niccolò Machiavelli influence?
1 thinker on this map draws directly on Niccolò Machiavelli.
- Montesquieu 1689–1755
The line of teachers behind Niccolò Machiavelli
The longest documented line of influence ending at Niccolò Machiavelli runs 11 generations back, to Thales of Miletus.
Two steps away from Niccolò Machiavelli
Indirect influences
- Through Cicero: Plato, Zeno of Citium, Posidonius
The second generation
- Through Montesquieu: Auguste Comte, Alexis de Tocqueville
Contemporaries of Niccolò Machiavelli
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Niccolò Machiavelli, with no direct line between them.
- Erasmus 1466–1536
- Pico della Mirandola 1463–1494
Niccolò Machiavelli by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 2
- Direct followers
- 1
- Thinkers upstream
- 22
- Thinkers downstream
- 28
- Wikipedia languages
- 158 — #6 of 36 among early modern philosophers
- Card rarity
- Legendary
Questions about Niccolò Machiavelli
- Who influenced Niccolò Machiavelli?
- Cicero and Plutarch.
- Who did Niccolò Machiavelli influence?
- Montesquieu.
- When did Niccolò Machiavelli live?
- 1469–1527. The map files Niccolò Machiavelli under the early modern period.
- How rare is the Niccolò Machiavelli card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Niccolò Machiavelli in 158 languages, which makes it a Legendary card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More early modern philosophers
- René Descartes 1596–1650
- Immanuel Kant 1724–1804
- Voltaire 1694–1778
- Adam Smith 1723–1790
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712–1778
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646–1716
- John Locke 1632–1704
- Blaise Pascal 1623–1662