Abstracts
Abstract
In this paper I focus on Mary Astell’s treatment and uses of Machiavelli’s works and ideas in her political pamphlet Moderation truly Stated. I claim that there is in it an Anglican appropriation of some Machiavellian civic-humanist vocabulary. I show that in reconciling key Machiavellian insights with her Christian view of politics, Astell considerably qualifies them. Nevertheless, I argue that they are indeed operative in her political arguments (explicitly and implicitly), most significantly in its feminist agenda. I conclude, against some previous interpretations, that there is a neo-Machiavellian side to Astellian political analysis, both at the theoretical and pragmatic level.
Keywords:
- Mary Astell,
- Charles Davenant,
- Niccolò Machiavelli,
- politics,
- history,
- faction,
- civic virtue,
- patriotism,
- early modern feminism,
- Anglicanism
Appendices
Bibliography
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