9th BLB Meeting, 20th June. 2017: "Republican Patriotism and Machiavelli's Patriotism"

Written by：管理员 Last updated：2017-06-05

Topic: Republican Patriotism and Machiavelli's Patriotism

Speaker: Jun-Hyeok Kwak (Professor at the Dept. of Philosophy, Zhuhai)

Moderator: Dr Rodrigues (Research fellow at the Dept. of Philosophy, Zhuhai)

Time: June 20th, 2017

Venue: Rm 114, No. 16 Building at Haibin Honglo

 

Abstract

The theories of republican patriotism, especially articulated by Maurizio Viroli, promote Machiavelli's patriotism as the archetype of patriotism without nationalism. The upshot is that in Machiavelli's republicanism, the ideal of liberty as non-domination cultivates moral obligations towards humanity. Rather than engaging in debates on the tension between republican liberty and republican imperialism in Machiavelli's writings, this paper tackles this interpretation with textual evidences that shed light on Machiavelli's patriotism prone to the same problems as those Maurizio Viroli sees in nationalism. More specifically, I argue that Machiavelli's patriotic aspiration neglects the role of regulative principle in guarding patriotic royalty from degenerating into collective selfishness.