Ethical Dimensions in the Art of War

Abstract

Even though the question of the legitimacy of war is not considered by Machiavelli, or by most of the Italian thinkers of the beginning of the XVI century, the ethic component is not missing from Machiavelli’s political reflection in the Art of War. As a matter of fact, beside the technical assumptions of the creation of the “milizia d’ordinanza” (militia army) and of its different ways of fighting on the pitch, highly bounded to the political requirements of a virtuous republic, are the fundamental ethical needs about the moral qualities of the citizens-soldiers, about the virtue of the commanders and about the straightness of the political leaders who choose and use them in military operations. That can be particularly highlighted in the introductive and conclusive parts of the treaty.