“Fortune favors the bold": Machiavelli and the Subversion of a Commonplace
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/isegoria.2015.053.08Keywords:
Machiavelli, impetuosity, virtue, fortune, rhetoric, fatalism, corruption, prudenceAbstract
This paper explores a very precise question: what does Machiavelli mean when he writes, in the chapter XXV of The Prince, that it is preferable to behave impetuously rather than cautiously? Through an in-depth analysis of this chapter, the author questions the validity of the prevailing interpretation, which holds that a virtuous individual can subjugate “fortuna” through an impetuous action. Machiavelli’s assertion should be construed as a bet on the creative potentialities of action in a context of corruption in which fatalism and the desire to be dominated tend to prevail. In this sense, the priority given to impetuosity is the cornerstone of a provisional morality required for adverse times.
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