literally the first paragraph of the introduction to this said it was sometimes viewed as "needlessly pedantic and repetitive" and "alienating," so clearly i was psyched. but the joke's on whoever wrote the intro, because i just spent a week and a half reading augustine, so this was light shit. did it convince me of dante's points? not really. but i was pleasantly surprised at how readable it was; i genuinely think the psuedo-geometric-proof format was good for this. someday i will have to read

I love Dante, but this... is... dry.

So the highest faculty in a human being is not simply to exist, because the elements too share in the simple fact of existence; nor is it to exist in compound form, for that is found in minerals; nor is it to exist as a living thing, for plants too share in that; nor is it to exist as a creature with sense perception, for that is also shared by the lower animals; but it is to exist as a creature who apprehends by means of the potential intellect; this mode of existence belongs to no creature (wh...

Even though Dante Alighieri claims that the ultimate goal is peace by means of a single and absolute temporal monarchy (empire), I figured, while reading Book I, that Book II would have assertions like"Proof enough has been given that the Romans were by nature ordained for sovereignty. Therefore the Roman people, in subjecting to itself the world, attained the Empire by Right.""Hence piety accepts the contradictory, that the Roman Empire gained its perfection with the approval of miracles, that

When I first read the Monarchia a few years ago I was rather disapointed, both by the rather pedantic style and by the weakness of some of the arguments. The main argument in Book I. that universal empire will eliminate envy still seems to me rather week, but this time I am beginning to see the hidden brilliance of much of the rest of the book. For example the argument for world-empire from the agency of the Creator wishing to bring about His likeness in creation in 1.8.

enlightening as to the motives of the author and the difficulties of the time period, but philosophically and politically its all a lot of hogwash.

Dante makes a very interesting and fairly convincing argument for the establishment of a global monarchy. It's basically pretty much a Christian dictatorship he envisions (albeit with church and state clearly separated; the former given spiritual, the latter temporal supremacy), which sounds alright to me. Pity it never happened. Though I'm sure a lot of people would disagree.

Dante is a dear old chap, amusing even when he's seismically wrong.

On offer is a dearth of poetic and rhetorical value speckled with false etymologies, category errors, double standards, motivated reasoning, and misquotations aplenty. That aside, the Achilles heel of syllogistic reasoning is that any swarm of far-fetched premises may be deployed to force a logical conclusion; they need not correspond to the actual state of things—indeed they rarely are able—and where they do, their rhetorical power resides solely in the mind of the one making the argument, as o...

I feel a little cheated by this book. I had hoped to find a book with the latest academic thought on Dante's political theory and a good translation with plenty of notes to expand and explain the context and sources of the work.Well HARD LUCK, Derek.Although this work was published in 2012 and that is what it will tell you in Amazon and Goodreads it is actually a republishing - and therefore re-copyrighting of a translation published in 1904 - by Veritatis Splendor Publications which exists to p...

And he, together with other thinkers of that period, longed for unity among men, for unity that seemed never to be made a reality. Yet Dante believed and proclaimed that such a unity could come about, but in one way only, through a regeneration of society and a uniting of political interests under one head independent of the Church.In The De Monarchia, Dante embarks on a philosophical journey to prove, without reasonable doubt and by laws of logic, the validity of a global monarchy. In modern ti...

VASTLY underrated book which is more about the powers which we let govern our lives than the Italy of Dante...

I will admit, prior to having found out about this treatise some days ago, alike to many others I knew Dante by solely his more well known works. Not to just his The Divine Comedy, but to his Vita Nuova and the unfinished Convivio. Then there's this: De Monarchia. The sole properly philosophical/political work Dante completed. Yet, perhaps ultimately this was for the best.The intent of this treatise is really quite simple, and could be guessed from the title alone. In that: monarchism leads to s...

This was a fascinating religio-political tract by the most brilliant poet of the last 2,000 years, Dante Alighieri. In De Monarchia, Dante makes the bold argument for a single world-emperor who should assume political authority over the entire civilized world. Under him the governments of individual states would be subsumed, and he would rule as a divinely-authorized philosopher king over all people. To support his argument, Dante points out that the reason state and city governments wage destru...

I first read Dante's 'De Monarchia' back in a University of Delaware international relations theory class . Dante's short classic treatise is an apology for the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire and an inquiry into what might be the necessary conditions to rebuild an international political order of the same size and magnitude of the old empire for modern times. Dante has inspired the political ambitions of such great conquerers as Napoleon I (his Napoleonic codes ) and his Congress of Vienna en...

I have this vision of Dante stepping up to a diving board, waving his arms, yelling "Look at Me-e-e-e-e-e!" and then face-planting into the pool. Right, it would have been cute if you were six, but you aren't. Go home, Dante. Go home.

The author chooses as an aim of his arguments the concept that political authority emanated from the pope's figure. Thus seeking to justify his desire for an Italian empire where, despite the Providential duality (happiness on earth and eternal happiness), the two authorities - spiritual and political - are not confused, but act in parallel, that is, the spirit illuminates the governmental action.

There is just something so entertaining about books from the 13th century or there about. Aristotle has recently been rediscovered in the West while Maimonides and Aquinas use the same kind of argumentation which probably inspired Dante’s methodology in this simple, delightful and entertaining exposé on why we know with certainty that the Holy Roman Emperor was ordained by God and meant to be the one and only true secular leader, and why the Pope should know his place and keep to the realm of th...

It is sad to think that this sober and astonishing critique on the foundations of the Church was included in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum; for Dante, with sublime and shrewd power of analysis, takes to task the perennial questions on the real power and role of the Roman Catholic Church in the affairs of mankind. Interpreting from scripture, he dissects the meaning behind the "two keys" and the misinterpretation by which the powers at the time, may have placed in the gospels to validate their

Seriously?!? Don't do it dude!