금서(禁書)의 욕망, 해금의 욕망 -『군주론』을 중심으로-

초록

The main purposes of this article are twofold. To remove the ban on Machiavelli`s Prince is the one. The other is to speculate on the nature of the prohibited books. In 1559, the first Roman Catholic Index Librorum Prohibitorum(Index of Prohibited Books) was promulgated by Pope Paul IV. The avowed aim of the list was to protect the faith and morals of the faithful by preventing the reading of immoral books or works containing theological errors. One of the books forbidden to be read by this Index was Machavielli`s notorious The Prince. At first sight, it seems reasonable to put Machiavelli`s book on the index of prohibited books. This is because his book is so full of ‘evil advices’ to princes. For example, Machiavelli never hesitated to say that “hence it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.” As a result, Frederick the Great asserted that Machiavelli is “a teacher of the evil” and his book is simply “the poison.” But why did Machiavelli preach such an immoral act? And is it proper banning Machiavelli`s book? To answer these questions, we have to return back Machiavelli to the past. In other words, we have to read his text in the proper historical context. This is because, by this reading method, we can not only grasp the true meanings of his advice but also understand his intentions of writing The Prince. As a result of this kind of historical reading, it will be argued that Machiavelli`s Prince is not the poison but rather the reagent testing our moral and intellectual environment. At the same time, it will be suggested that what we need to do about some excessive and monstrous books is not banning or burning but telling his/her understanding of those books to others and let they become their own judges on those books. Hence, it`s forbidden to forbid.

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