Machiavelli’s work is political action, not utopian blueprint or abstract science.

Evidence

Machiavelli wrote books of “immediate political action”, and not Utopias-which express the longing for a ready-made State, with all its functions and elements ready-made too. In his treatment, in his critique of the present, he expressed general concepts-presented, however, in aphoristic rather than in systematic form-and an original conception of the world. This conception of the world too could be called “philosophy of praxis”, or “neo-humanism”, in as much as it does not recognise transcendent or immanent (in the metaphysical sense) elements, but bases itself entirely on the concrete action of man, who, impelled by historical necessity, works and transforms reality. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 931

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Defines the distinction between immediate political action, utopia, and political science — and introduces ‘philosophy of praxis’ as Gramsci’s term for his own worldview.
• XREF: ‘Philosophy of praxis’ is one of the scaffolding terms the reader’s foundational module needs to carry onward.

Related

• Machiavelli wrote as an agitator urging action, not as a systematic theorist (similarity 0.86)
• Machiavelli’s work is immediate political action, not utopian blueprint (similarity 0.85)
• Politics must be established as an autonomous science within any coherent worldview (similarity 0.83)
• A person’s real philosophy is expressed in action, not declared belief (similarity 0.81)
• Gramsci’s philosophy of praxis links theory inseparably to practice and action (similarity 0.81)
• Machiavelli’s politics demanded drawing rulers closer to the people (similarity 0.80)
• Machiavelli’s logical argument functions as the people’s own inner reasoning (similarity 0.80)
• Gramsci reads Machiavelli as legitimizing political leaders who defy reigning ideology (similarity 0.80)
• Machiavelli’s concepts function as intuitions and symbols, not metaphysics (similarity 0.80)
• Machiavelli must be read as historically situated, not as a timeless political scientist (similarity 0.79)
• The scope of political analysis determines whether change seems possible (similarity 0.79)
• Machiavelli’s political theory centers on securing permanent consent through the art of governing. (similarity 0.79)
• Philosophy of praxis shifted from mechanistic fatalism toward activist unity of theory and practice. (similarity 0.79)
• Machiavelli’s political priorities distort his military theory (similarity 0.79)
• Machiavelli derived political rules from objective conditions of struggle, not ethics (similarity 0.78)