Augusto Del Noce e l’origine della valutazione critica del moderno. L’incontro con Niccolò Machiavelli

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the weight of Machiavelli’s thought, sometimes forgotten by scholars working on Del Noce, not only in the reconstruction of Del Noce’s idea of modernity starting from the thought of Descartes, but also in the elaboration of a Christian political proposal during the Italian post-World War II period. This proposal will be presented precisely in the terms of overcoming Cartesian dualism and recovering the historical-political dimension of religious thought. Firstly, I offer a reconstruction of Cartesian dualism, framing it from the outset within what Del Noce defines as the conditioning horizon represented by the legacy of Machiavelli’s thought. This perspective sheds new light on Del Noce’s interpretation of Marx’s thought, the starting point of his entire reflection. I then analyse the links and differences between the Marxist approach and that of Machiavelli, in order to conclude by mentioning the tasks that Christian thought must assume today with respect to the political sphere.