Chapter 15
The decisive methodological statement: many have imagined republics and principalities that have never been seen; I depart from the orders of others to go to the effectual truth of the thing.
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From The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
Machiavelli announces his rupture with utopian and idealist traditions: he treats things as they are in fact, not as they ought to be, since one who abandons what is done for what should be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation.
Dedication
Machiavelli claims knowledge of princes from long experience and continual reading of ancient things, offering his work to Lorenzo de Medici.
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