TEHRAN – The Persian translation of the book “Thoughts on Machiavelli” written by Leo Strauss has been released in the bookstores across Iran.

Shervin Moghimi has translated the book and Qoqnoos Publishing House has brought it out in 520 pages, ILNA reported.

In the book, originally published in 1995, Leo Strauss argued that the most visible fact about Machiavelli's doctrine is also the most useful one: Machiavelli seems to be a teacher of wickedness. Strauss sought to incorporate this idea in his interpretation without permitting it to overwhelm or exhaust his exegesis of “The Prince” and the “Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy”. 

“We are in sympathy,” he writes, “with the simple opinion about Machiavelli [namely, the wickedness of his teaching], not only because it is wholesome, but above all because a failure to take that opinion seriously prevents one from doing justice to what is truly admirable in Machiavelli: the intrepidity of his thought, the grandeur of his vision, and the graceful subtlety of his speech.” This critique of the founder of modern political philosophy by this prominent twentieth-century scholar is an essential text for students of both authors.

Leo Strauss (1899-1973) joined the University of Chicago as professor of political philosophy in 1949 and was later named Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in political science. 

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469- 1527) was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise “The Prince,” written around 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death. He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.

For many years, he served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is also important to historians and scholars of Italian correspondence.

After his death, Machiavelli's name came to evoke unscrupulous acts of the sort he advised most famously in his work, “The Prince”. He concerned himself with the ways a ruler could succeed in politics, and believed those who flourished engaged in deception, treachery, and violence. He advised rulers to engage in evil when political necessity requires it, at one point stating that successful founders and reformers of governments should be excused for killing other leaders who would oppose them. Machiavelli's “The Prince” has been surrounded by controversy since it was published. Some consider it to be a straightforward description of political reality. Many view “The Prince” as a manual, teaching would-be tyrants how they should seize and maintain power.

His works were a major influence on Enlightenment authors who revived interest in classical republicanism, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and James Harrington. Machiavelli's philosophical contributions have influenced generations of academics and politicians, with many of them debating the nature of his ideas.

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