Bran

Had @Ada_Palmer back on – this time to talk about Machiavelli, perhaps the most misunderstood thinker of all time. Machiavelli cut his teeth as a high-level diplomat for Florence, a position from which he got to closely observe the most important rulers in Europe at the time, including the ones who were on the path to destroying his dearly beloved Florence. In 1513 the Medici retook control of Florence and, wrongly suspecting Machiavelli of participating in a coup attempt, fired, tortured, and exiled him. Machiavelli could have fled his exile and worked for any number of different principalities that would have been eager to make use of his talents. Instead, he decided to rot in the countryside and compile his career's lessons about power, politics, and human nature into a book he dedicated to the very man whose new regime had tortured and exiled him, Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici. But at least the Medici were in a position to use his insights to defend Florence. Machiavelli the patriot did not want any other hands to touch this book, because those hands, armed with these lessons, might pose an existential danger to Florence. The closest modern analogy, at least as Machiavelli would have seen it, would be Szilard's letter warning FDR about the possibility of a nuclear fission bomb. What were those insights? And how were they inspired by Machiavelli's dangerous diplomatic missions all across Europe, and his extensive reading of antiquity? Watch this episode with Ada Palmer to find out! 00:00:00 – How Florence bargained with Cesare Borgia for survival 00:15:08 – Machiavelli’s analytical innovations 00:23:58 – Why popes became warlords 00:36:13 – Why the common people demanded nepotism 00:47:57 – Cesare Borgia brought terror to rulers and justice to the people 00:57:55 – Art as a proxy for war 01:06:41 – Florence, a city famous in hell 01:15:57 – The Prince was a job application to Machiavelli’s torturers 01:41:39 – During the Renaissance, original ideas had to be couched in antiquity 01:50:44 – Why copyright began with the Inquisition 02:02:12 – Machiavelli wasn’t Machiavellian Look up Dwarkesh Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, etc.