The political philosophy of Han Fei and Niccolò Machiavelli: a historicist reinterpretation
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2010-12
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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This dissertation is an attempt to propose an alternative to the reading of Han Fei's (韓非) and Niccolò Machiavelli's political thought as evil and amoral. I pursue my study through a double approach of speaking not only about the authors themselves but also trying to present the author's own perspective and terminology. My approach, thus, is historicist and as a result it has as a frame of reference the respective intellectual, social and historical environment of the authors in question. First, I argue that Xunzi and Xenophon are figures that most interpretative literature ignores, but nevertheless make a significant contribution to the content of Han Fei and Machiavelli's understanding of human nature and of the virtues that a successful ruler must have. Second, I reconstruct their view of how a ruler should be educated in order to realize that their advice was not aimed at perpetuating those already in power, but to guide those who ought to rule. Then I expand the discussion about the rulers to argue that the two authors propose a regime based on a system of laws that has as its aim stability, peace and common good. Finally, I argue that their use of history, employed to understand the processual nature of politics, turned their philosophical approach into an early form of the historicist framework used in this dissertation.
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Han Fei, Niccolò Machiavelli
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Theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Philosophy.
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