Time, History, Freedom, and the Machiavellian Problem

In this article, I take up the issue of political theology and social reproduction within the terms laid out by J. G. A. Pocock and his framing of a problem he calls the Machiavellian problem. While this involves articulating the relationship between political theology and social reproduction in general my main concern is with the relationship between political theology, social reproduction and volition. To cash this out, I will explore these themes through a comparative reading of Augustine, Pico Della Mirandola and Machiavelli. Augustine will be our premodern representative, and Pico and Machiavelli will be our early modern representatives. There are similarities between their contexts, as they both deliver their political thoughts during periods of substantial transformation and upheaval, with Augustine writing during the fall of Rome, and Machiavelli during crises in the Italian city-states (which is itself part of what we now recognize as the genesis of early modernity).