Description
| Product ID: | 9781839760143 |
| Product Form: | Paperback / softback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Series: | Verso World History |
| Title: | Nevertheless |
| Subtitle: | Machiavelli, Pascal |
| Authors: | Author: Carlo Ginzburg |
| Page Count: | 272 |
| Subjects: | Historiography, Historiography, General and world history, History of ideas, General & world history, History of ideas |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating From the master of "micro-history", a reconstruction of two contrasting early-modern thinkers From the master of "micro-history" a reconstruction of two contrasting early-modern thinkers Nevertheless comprises essays on Machiavelli and on Pascal. The ambivalent connection between the two parts is embodied by the comma (,) in the subtitle: Machiavelli, Pascal. Is this comma a conjunction or a disjunction? In fact, both. Ginzburg approaches Machiavelli''s work from the perspective of casuistry, or case-based ethical reasoning. For as Machiavelli indicated through his repeated use of the adverb nondimanco ("nevertheless"), there is an exception to every rule. Such a perspective may seem to echo the traditional image of Machiavelli as a cynical, "machiavellian" thinker. But a close analysis of Machiavelli the reader, as well as of the ways in which some of Machiavelli''s most perceptive readers read his work, throws a different light on Machiavelli the writer. The same hermeneutic strategy inspires the essays on the Provinciales, Pascal''s ferocious attack against Jesuitical casuistry. Casuistry vs anti-casuistry; Machiavelli''s secular attitude towards religion vs Pascal''s deep religiosity. We are confronted, apparently, with two completely different worlds. But Pascal read Machiavelli, and reflected deeply upon his work. A belated, contemporary echo of this reading can unveil the complex relationship between Machiavelli and Pascal - their divergences as well as their unexpected convergences. |
| Imprint Name: | Verso Books |
| Publisher Name: | Verso Books |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2022-01-25 |
