This article aims, first, to clarify Fichte’s judgment on Machiavelli, second, to explain the
reasons for the former's interest in the latter within the context of late eighteenth- and
early nineteenth-century history. Fichte did not admire Machiavelli from a philosophical
or a religious, but from a moral perspective. The one-sidedness and blindness of the author
of The Prince did not prevent Fichte from endorsing the "more serious and stronger"
conception of politics advocated by him: the war in Germany alongside the subversion of
the foundations of the rule of law made it necessary to rehabilitate the Machiavellian
recipe in the management of politics. However. Fichte also stressed the limits of the
Machiavellian program: Machiavelli only considered a situation in which the rule of law is
not assured.
