Politics and philosophy : Niccolo Machiavelli and Louis Althusser's aleatory materialism / by Mikko Lahtinen ; translated by Gareth Griffiths and Kristina Kohli.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-321) and index.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Foreword -- Author's Preface to the English Edition -- Chapter One -- Introductory Comments -- 1.1. Althusser, Machiavelli and political theory -- 1.2. Althusser's contribution to Machiavelli scholarship -- 1.2.1. The general and the particular -- 1.2.2. The political praxis of a prince -- 1.2.3. Aleatory dynamics -- 1.2.4. 'Verità effettuale della cosa' : 'The effective truth' -- 1.2.5. Morals and politics -- 1.2.6. Materialist political theory -- 1.3. The approach of the present study -- Chapter Two -- A Critique of Hegelianism -- 2.1. A Critique of Hegelian dialectics -- 2.2. Althusser's Marxism -- 2.2.1. Overdetermination and underdetermination -- The 'morphology' of the over- and underdetermination of contradictions -- The reality of contradictions -- Displacements and condensations in ideological apparatuses : ideological apparatuses as the displacements and condensations of contradictions -- The metaphoric nature of the topographic -- Russia 1917 -- 2.2.2. Summary: complexity and chaos -- 2.2.3. Engels and individual will -- The individual will -- 2.3. Althusser's self-criticism -- 2.3.1. Elliott's theoreticist interpretation of Althusser -- 2.4. The 'Machiavellian' Lenin -- 2.4.1. Towards a theoreticisation of practice -- Chapter Three -- Aleatory Materialism -- 3.1. Prologue: Machiavelli's solitude -- 3.2. The underground current of the materialism of the encounter -- 3.2.1. Law -- 3.2.2. Surprises -- Chapter Four -- Althusser's Aleatory Machiavelli -- 4.1. A preliminary schema: the two dimensions of Machiavelli's differentiae specificae -- 4.1.1. 'Theoretical' differentia specifica -- 4.1.2. 'Political' differentia specifica -- 4.2. Machiavelli's differentia specifica in the history of political thought -- 4.2.1. Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Aristotle -- 4.3. The praxis of The Prince : the text as a political act -- 4.3.1. Machiavelli's utopianism -- 4.4. The praxis of the prince : the aleatory truth -- 4.4.1. The aleatory of the 'subjective' and 'objective' -- 4.4.2. Beyond the aleatory of the 'subjective' and 'objective' -- 4.5. The praxis of the prince: the project and strategy of the new prince -- 4.5.1. Machiavelli and Polybius -- 4.5.2. The conditions for the political project and strategy of the new prince -- 4.5.3. The lawless hero -- 4.5.4. A popular ideological figure -- 4.5.5. The dialectic of the interests of the prince and the people -- 4.5.6. The state and the law -- 4.6. Epilogue: Althusser's interpretation of Machiavelli -- Chapter Five -- The Subversive Machiavelli -- 5.1. The art of war and the art of politics -- 5.2. The destructive current of fortuna -- 5.2.1. The actor's prudence -- 5.3. The aspects of fortuna -- 5.3.1. Kronos and Kairos -- 5.4. Lady Fortuna and the youngmen -- 5.5. The rise and fall of Cesare Borgia -- 5.5.1. Cesare's misfortune -- 5.6. 'A stable people' -- 5.6.1. 'A people' and a 'nation' in the context and terminology of the early cinquecento -- 5.6.2. Machiavelli in the Florentine context -- 5.6.3. 'Utopian' texts -- 5.7. Epilogue: Machiavelli and the taming of chance -- Chapter Six -- Conclusion -- References -- Index.

Print version record.

The main argument of the book is that for French philosopher Louis Althusser it was essential to reflect on how the conjunctural understanding of history and reality could offer a theoretical starting point for a subversive political strategy and intervention.

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