Page "Niccolò Machiavelli" Paragraph 72

While Machiavelli's approach had classical precedents, it has been argued that it did more than just bring back old ideas, and that Machiavelli was not a typical humanist.

argues that the way Machiavelli combines classical ideas is new.

While Xenophon and Plato also described realistic politics, and were closer to Machiavelli than Aristotle was, they, like Aristotle, also saw Philosophy as something higher than politics.

Machiavelli was apparently a materialist who objected to explanations involving formal and final causation, or teleology.