Machiavelli’s logical argument functions as the people’s own inner reasoning

Evidence

Throughout the book, Machiavelli discusses what the Prince must be like if he is to lead a people to found a new State; the argument is developed with rigorous logic, and with scientific detachment. In the conclusion, Machiavelli merges with the people, becomes the people; not, however, some “generic” people, but the people whom he, Machiavelli, has convinced by the preceding argument—the people whose consciousness and whose expression he becomes and feels himself to be, with whom he feels identified. The entire “logical” argument now appears as nothing other than auto-reflection on the part of the people—an inner reasoning worked out in the popular consciousness, whose conclusion is a cry of passionate urgency. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 599

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• XREF: The mechanism of argument-becoming-collective-self-awareness parallels how ideology interpellates subjects — connects to later identity-construction readings.

Related

• Machiavelli wrote as an agitator urging action, not as a systematic theorist (similarity 0.80)
• Gramsci reads Machiavelli as legitimizing political leaders who defy reigning ideology (similarity 0.80)
• Machiavelli’s work is political action, not utopian blueprint or abstract science. (similarity 0.80)
• Machiavelli’s Prince epilogue functions as a political manifesto through mythic identification (similarity 0.79)
• Machiavelli’s politics demanded drawing rulers closer to the people (similarity 0.78)