Abstract

Through the analysis of some pages of Machiavelli's "Principe", "Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio" and "Asino", the essay provides a reflection on the so-called Machiavelli's "naturalism", that must be understood as the deliberate and total removal of the divine and the supernatural from the system of forces that the art of the state must consider; i.e., as a substantial atheism. It focuses then on the theme of the "animality": the political reason ("Principe", ch. XVIII) must consider the irrational component of the human nature as the subject of its reflection; the difference between the wise prince and other men can be recognized in the ability of understanding the political role of natural and human passions.