Machiavelli’s political concepts were worldly intuitions, not metaphysics

Evidence

But it is important to point out that such concepts in Machiavelli never have a metaphysical character, as they do in the philosophers proper of humanism, but are simple and profound intuitions (and therefore philosophy!) of life, and are to be understood and explained as symbols of sentiments. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1471

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Machiavelli’s concepts function as intuitions and symbols, not metaphysics; Machiavelli derived political rules from objective conditions of struggle, not ethics; Reading Machiavelli as timeless political science distorts his situated meaning — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 637 (+6 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Machiavelli’s concepts function as intuitions and symbols, not metaphysics; Machiavelli derived political rules from objective conditions of struggle, not ethics; Reading Machiavelli as timeless political science distorts his situated meaning — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 637 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Machiavelli’s concepts function as intuitions and symbols, not metaphysics #corroborates (0.97)
• Machiavelli’s fortune concept is lived intuition, not metaphysical abstraction #exemplifies (0.93) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1471