Esposito And Machiavelli: Inspiration And Affinity

Esposito's early essays, from the 1980s, on Machiavelli's The Prince and The Discourses reveal affinities between the two thinkers: the stress on innovation and originality, the goal of  concreteness and functionality, and the effective use of rhetorical modes of expression, including metaphorical language (the image of the pathway, for example). Esposito's non-conventional manner of interpreting Machiavelli, which excludes questions of chronology or biography, and presents a non-linear analysis of the texts, expressed in vivid prose, help explain the modern philosopher's view of the Renaissance author as a precursor in the Italian tradition of what he calls living thought or Italian theory.