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Human Nature THE EMPIRE OF HUMAN NATURE MACHIAVELLI'S APPEAL TO THE ANCIENT REPUBLIC AND MONTESQUIEU'S CRITIQUE OF IT James Frederick Loucks III A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirernents for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science University of Toronto Q Copyright by James Frederick Loucks III, 2000 National Library Bibliothèque nationale ISI of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 ûîtawaON K1AON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Librq of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction su.papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts nom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract The Empire of Human Nature: Machiavelli 's Appeal to Antiquity and Montesquieu's Critique of It Ph.û. 2000 James Frederick Loucks III Departmen t of Poli tical Science University of Toronto This dissertation explores how Machiavelli and Montesquieu's contrary conceptions of human nature lead to radically divergent political prescriptions. Montesquieu intends to liberate the modem world &om the legacy of antiquity, particularly Roman antiquity, because ancient republics violated human nature and thus were inexorably caught in a cycle of empire, corruption, and decline. Montesquieu takes aim at Machiavelli, who argues that the ancient Roman republic best accommodated human nature. For Machiavelli, there is a bestial element within human nature-charactenzed by the desire to dominate othen, and selfishness-that cannot be exorcized, but that must be discipiined if political order is to exist. The Roman republic represents the perfect disciplining, hamessing, and expression of this bestial element. The Romans, by pursuing empire without and establishing fiee institutions within, created a republic of unpdieled power and enviable longevity while at the same time tuming othenvise selfish humans into citizens. Although Rome eventually fell, its fa11 exposes the limits of political order. To elevate human nature, as political order does, is both a difficult and a temporary feat. Thus, Rome's decline does not discredit its incredible success. Montesquieu acknowledges tension between naturai human passions and political .. 11 order. However, he believes that Machiavelli made cardinal errors both in identifjmg these natural passions, and in believing that the Roman republic accommodated them. Republics do not forge unity through the modification and expression of the primordial desire to dominate. Rather, republican institutions themselves create this desire, which humans do not naturdy have. Montesquieu contends that rcpublics must squuzkh individuality, which is at the core of human nature, and prevent the satisfaction of al1 natual passions in order to produce the unity of purpose necessary to their existence. The quintessence of virtue, the "spnng" of republican govemment, is the suppression of these passions. The sacrifice of one's dearest interests, one's individuality itself, cm be vindicated oniy through empire. But empire leads to the republic's self-destruction. as the fnits of empire swiffly mode the conditions necessary for virtue to flourish. To imitate Rome would be to violate huma. nature once again, subjecting humans to a fom of govemment that is both violent and unstable. A new politics, based upon both the individuai's natural passions and commerce, the "spirit" of modernity, is Montesquieu's alternative to the ancient republic. To Dud, Nicki, Susan, and the memory of Mom Ab breviations In-text citations of Machiavelli and Montesquieu are abbreviated as follows. Unless otherwise noted, citations are from the editions Iisted below. Machiavelli CW - Machiavelli, Niccolb. 1965. Machiavelli: The Chief Wurks and Others. Translated by Alan Gilbert. 3 vols. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. D - Machiavelli, Niccolb. 1996. Discourses on Livy. Translated by Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., Nathan Tarcov. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. HF - Machiavelli, Niccolo. 1965. The History of Florence. In Machiavelli: The Chief' Works and Others. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. P - Machiavelli, Niccolo. 1997. The Prince. Translated by Ange10 M. Codevilla. New Haven: Yale University Press. Montesquieu GD - Montesquieu, Charles Secondat, baron de. 1965. Considerations on the Causes of the Greumess of the Romans and their Decline. Translated by David Lowenthal. New York: The Free Press. OC - Montesquieu, Charles Secondat, baron de. 1949-5 1. Oeuvres Complètes. 2 vols. Paris: Gallimard. PL - Montesquieu, Charles Secondat, baron de. 1973. Persian Letters. Translated by Christopher Betts. London: Penguin Books. SL - Montesquieu, Charles Secondat, baron de. 1989. The Spirit of the Lms. Translated by Anne M. Cohler, Basia C. Miller, Harold S. Stone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Table of Contents Introduction. .. I Part 1: Machiavellits Appeal tu Anîiquity Chapter 1 From Beast to Citizen.. 10 Chapter 2 Beast, Citizen, and Empire. .64 Part II: Montesquieu's Critique of Machiaveili and Antiquity Chapter 3 Laws and Passions .. 128 Chapter 4 The Dialectic of Viihie .. 174 Chapter 5 Empire and Despotism .. .214 Introduction "When I tumed to antiquity, I sought to capture its spirit in order not to consider as similar those cases with real differences or to overlook differences in those that appear similai' (SL Preface, p. xliii). The histones of Greek and Roman antiquity, which al1 educated men of the eighteenth-century studied from an early age, taught them to admire "al1 those heroic virtues we find in the ancients. ." (SL 3.5, p. 25), and the mode of govenunent that had created them. Ancient republics once produced citizens who were capable of unbelievable self-sacrifice, steadfastness, and courage as they contended for the supremacy of the world. Virtue, the willingness of the citizen to put the glory of his homeland above his own dearest interests (SL 3.5, p. 25), inspired wonder in modems, who were just beginning to speak the ~el~interestedlanguage of bbmanufacturing, commerce, finance, and even Iuxury" (SL 3.3, p. 23). To many of Montesquieu's contemporaries, the world seemed to have lost its vitaiity, nations their power, and politics its ability to create citizens. Not to Montesquieu. From the opening pages of The Spirit of the Lcrws, Montesquieu intends to liberate the modem world fiom the legacy of antiquity. Montesquieu attempts to convince his contemporaries that republics, and the Wtue that anirnated them, belong to a past that is less admirable than it appears through the eyes of historians; it is both impossible and foolish for modems to imitate them. While 'hianufachuing, commerce, fiance, and even luxury" may be less glorious means 2 of maintaining govemment and establishing national prominence, they are undoubtedly superior to the vimie of the ancients because they are more natural. h coming to these conclusions, Montesquieu must refute not only the most respected histonms of antiquity, but also Machiavelli, a political theorist who exalts ancient statecraft. While Montesquieu is convinced that the imitation of mcient republics, if it were possible, would bring only disaster, Machiavelli maintains that imitating the ancients, to wit, the Romans, is the only salvation for a world mired in chaos and corruption. When Machiavelli surveyed the recent history and current state of his native Italy, he saw civil discord, tyranny, sedition, suffering, corruption, and perhaps worst of dl, weakness. The petty ambitions of dl, coupled with political and martial ineptitude among Italy's political elites, had rendered his beloved putria prostrate before any foreigner who wished to oppress and humiliate her. This sad state of affairs. he believed, was the direct result of the worst, and most enduring, charactenstic of human nature run amok. When political order is in decline or disintegrates altogether, the desire to dominate-expressed as both the drive to oppress othm and the selfish desire for pre- aninence-seizes control of humans. In this condition, they are incapable of the collective effort and trust necessary to found or maintain any kind of state. Politics must discipline and direct the desire to dominate if humans are to emerge from disorder. Without underestima~gthe immensity of the task, Machiavelli exhorts his countrymen to re-order themselves by imitahg the politicai and military examples of ancient Rome, the history of which fumishes the necessary remedies for modem social and political maladies. Human nature has never changed, for it is impossible that "the sky, am, the elements, men, were changed in motion, arrangement, and power fkom what 3 they were in antiquity"( D 1 Preface, p. 19 1). For Machiavelli, the crucial difference between Renaissance Italy and the Roman republic was that statecraft had changed, not human nature. The Roman republic
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