A few weeks ago (recall), I noted that in the Florentine Histories, Machiavelli uses Plutarch’s account of the senior Cato’s banishment of the Greek philosophers from Rome, to introduce an important distinction between two kinds of philosophy: (i) the philosophy that generates false glory in virtue of generating private esteem and undermining public utility; (ii) and the practically useful philosophy that generates true glory in virtue of enhancing the common good.
