The theory of the humors of Machiavelli: the relationship between the conflict and the freedom

Abstract

The purpose of this work consists of analyzing the place that the big’s and people’s conflict, circumscribed by the theory of humors, occupies in Machiavelli’s political thought and to investigate its relationship with the political freedom. The central hypothesis is that the freedom can only be reached by a balance point among the forces in conflict. For that, it is necessary that the conflict, not being annulled, be rationally regulated and normalized by the republican institutions, changing from negative force into force capable to converge in the State the commonwealth, the social order and the freedom of the whole political body. The republican law, born of the permanent confrontation of the antagonistic desires, subverts the negative character of the humors of big and people and it channels the force for the political life, demanding active citizenship of their members, it means, the participation of both humors in the public space as political agents for the maintenance of the freedom. To make it clear, we tried to demonstrate the characteristics of the conflict of the humors, in agreement with those which the desire of the big gets confused with a desire of power, while the desire of the people is associated to freedom. For Machiavelli, the true political freedom is only possible when the antagonistic humors can relieve their desires through the participation in the public space of debates and collective decisions, what can only happen in a republican regime.