Occupy the Commonplaces: Machiavelli and the Aristotelian Tradition of the Topics.

Anticipating sixteenth-century trends in vernacular Aristotelianism, Machiavelli concealed his theoretical engagement with Aristotle behind a veil of examples. Scholars have established that in The Prince, Machiavelli employed topical dialectic to update ancient maxims for the modern era. I show how he used dialectic to occupy and transform Aristotelian commonplaces that justified Renaissance philosophers' appeal to the ideal in political reasoning. These occupations reveal Machiavelli's preference for particulars over generalities as a considered judgment about the suitability of philosophy for popular readers. Machiavelli's covert reading of Aristotle is, I submit, a signal episode in the history of humanism.