Great Books II   Spring 2020

  Reading Questions  
 

March 12

 
 

 

 

Dante - Purgatorio

Focus on Cantos XXII - XXVI

 

Machiavelli

Letter to Lorenzo, I-IX

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Explicate the ingredients of a terrace of penitence.
  2. Explicate the purgation of gluttony and of lust.
  3. Which terrace is most interesting?
  4. How is it determined that a penitent is ready to ascend from their terrace?
  5. What is the difference between penitence and contrapasso?
  6. What is the connection between each of the terrace sins and Fortune?

 

 
  1. How can Machiavelli serve Lorenzo?
  2. What is this treatise about?
  3. What is the list of ends for a prince have?
  4. Which advice is more important: how to become a prince or how to stay a prince?
  5. What is Machiavelli's best advice?