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- Thoughts on Machiavelli de Leo StraussPublication . Bento, AntónioEm 1975, Harvey Mansfield e John Pocock, dois eminentes especialistas norte-americanos no pensamento político de Maquiavel, travaram-se de razões numa violenta discussão acerca do valor e do significado, para a compreensão histórica de Maquiavel e do “maquiavelismo”, do famoso e polémico livro de Leo Strauss Thoughts on Machiavelli (1958). Este debate entre Mansfield e Pocock foi publicado na prestigiada revista Political Theory (Vol. 3, Nº 4, November 1975). Ao exumarmos e reconstituirmos agora, com alguma demora e minúcia, os principais passos e argumentos de ambos os autores em torno da interpretação straussiana de Maquiavel, o nosso propósito é dar a conhecer ao público de língua portuguesa os termos de uma controvérsia – tão viva quanto instrutiva – que espelha ainda hoje a prodigiosa fortuna e o tremendo impacto da obra de Maquiavel na nossa contemporaneidade.
- Ernst Kantorowicz (1895-1963) and Gabriel Naudé (1600-1653): From "Mysteries of State" to "Coups d'État"Publication . Bento, AntónioThis essay argues that the so called “politic laicization” is inseparable of a State sacralization and that this is, at the beginning of the Modern Age, the political “mystery” in itself. To prove so, "Considérations politiques sur les coups d’État" (1639), by Gabriel Naudé, will be explored in the light of some of Ernst H. Kantorowicz’s recitals. It will be shown that the political actions carried out in the name of the "Mysteries of State" are no more and no less than the Prince’s coups d’État. These actions reveal the mysteries just by fulfilling them. State secret, or even better, the secrecy and mystery in the theological dimension of a modern “absolute State” is, in fact, the sacredness of the State. Accordingly, coup d’État as Naudé defines it – a genuine secret of State – expresses the sacred sphere of the "Mysteries of State".
- Machiavelli's Treatment of Congiure and the Modern OathPublication . Bento, AntónioThe constitution and formulation of «conspiracy» as a first order problem in political philosophy is exclusively due to Machiavelli. It was him who for the first time brought this new subject into political order. With great political virtuosity, for the first time Machiavelli treats conspiracies in a fundamentally pragmatic and technical manner.
- From the Medieval Church as a Mystical Body to the Modern State as a Mystical Person: Ernst Kantorowicz and Carl SchmittPublication . Bento, AntónioThis essay compares the treatment made by Carl Schmitt and Ernst Kantorowicz of that juridical fiction which medieval political theology called the «mystical body of Christ». By means of this comparison, this essay discusses and analyses the theological concepts of «bodyfication» and «mediation» as well as the legal concepts of «personification» and «representation». With support from both authors, the historical and political elucidation of these concepts will in turn provide a contextualized clarification of the notion of “Visible Church” allowing further theoretic deepening of the modern debate around the problem of secularization.
- Do Corpo Político Medieval à Pessoa Política ModernaPublication . Bento, AntónioThis text will analyze two political fictions which are at the heart of the two great figures that for centuries articulated and operated the western idea of political «union» or civil «community». The first fiction, of a theological-political character, goes back to St. Paul and is organized around the medieval notion of the «mystical body of Christ» and, by extension, the «mystical body of the Church». It is inseparable from a conception of «political body» that takes the «incarnation» of Christ as a figure, and «mediation», «incorporation» and «reciprocal inclusion» as operating concepts. The second fiction, of a purely juridical character, and clear Hobbesian influence, is structured around the modern notion of «person» and distances itself, as much as it can, from the medieval understanding of «political body» to privilege instead the juridical «personification» understood as political «representation». In fact, in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, the Commonwealth is no longer the result of the «incarnation» or «mediation» of a political body, but is instead the result of the representation of a «political person», or «artificial person», a representation that «disincarnates» and «disembodies» the «community». In this way, if medieval «mediation» is corresponded, grosso modo, by a «body» or an «embodiment», modern «representation» is corresponded by a «person» or a «personification». This second fiction, to which Thomas Hobbes attributes a terrifying figure and an irresistible power, substitutes «mediation» for «representation», «incarnation» for «personification», in short, it substitutes the theological for the juridical.