La prospettiva del prudente. Prudenza, virtù, necessità, religione in Machiavelli

The role of perspective in modelling Machiavelli’s notion of politics has given rise to a number of interpretations, which have focussed exclusively on the notion of perspectiva artificialis. Yet, an accurate historical investigation leads us to the conclusion that Machiavelli’s source of inspiration was rather the perspectiva naturalis, in particular its two main assumptions: the relation between the position of a body in space and its power/influence, and the relation between the level of action and that of knowledge (the species enable both processes). In this way, it is possible to explain the peculiar oscillation of Machiavelli’s thought between identity (in eternity) and difference (in time), as well as the intertwining among prudence, virtue, necessity and religion