Justus Lipsius and the Post-Machiavellian Prince

This chapter studies the political thought of Justus Lipsius, a moral and political thinker as well as the author of the two-volume philosophical dialogue De constantia (1583) and the six-volume Politica (1589). The chapter explores the scholarship surrounding Lipsius and the historical significance of his works and investigates his connections to Neostoicism. It then embarks on a discussion of the connection between Lipsius's political thought and that of Machiavelli, particularly as revealed in the latter's The Prince (1532). The chapter argues that Machiavelli and Lipsius disagree on the ends of political action: Lipsius's prince aims at serving the common good, understood in terms of the security and welfare of the subject population; Machiavelli's prince acts to secure his own glory.