Ada Palmer

The teachers brought both classes together so each could hear how the others' approach, history versus political science, approached the things differently.

Palmer asked both classes, what would Machiavelli say if you asked him what would happen if Milan suddenly changed from a monarchal duchy to a republic?

Quote,

The poly-SCI students went first.

He'd say that it would be very unstable, because the people don't have a republican tradition, so lots of ambitious families would be tempted to try to take over, so you'd have to get rid of those ambitious families, like the example Livy gives of killing the sons of Brutus in the Roman Republic, and you would have to work hard to get the people passionately invested in the new republican institutions, or they wouldn't stand by them when the going gets tough or conquerors threaten.

It was a great answer.

Then my students replied.

He'd say it would all depend on whether Cardinal Ascanio Visconti Sforza is or isn't in the inner circle of the current Pope, how badly the Orsinical Honor feud is raging, whether politics in Florence is stable enough for the Medici to aid Milan's defences, and whether Emperor Maximilian is free to defend Milan or too busy dealing with Vladislaus of Hungary.

and I think I'd have something to say about it, added my fearsome Caterina Sforza, and me, added my ominously smiling King Charles.

In fact, my class had given a silent answer before anyone spoke, since the instant they heard the phrase, if Milan became a republic, all my students had turned as a body to stare at our King Charles with trepidation, with a couple of glances for our Ascanio Visconti Sforza.

It was a completely different answer from the other classes, but the thing that made the moment magical is that both were right.

End quote.

Both answers were right, but they hinted at different kinds of approaches to history.

The political science students articulated general principles, the structural forces that make new republics unstable, the institutional work required to sustain them.

Palmer's students, by contrast, gave an answer saturated with particulars.

Specific cardinals, specific feuds, specific rulers with specific constraints.

They weren't describing general laws but a turbulent moment where small differences, whether Ascanio Sforza is in the Pope's inner circle, whether Maximilian is busy with Hungary, could deflect the course of events in radically different directions.

From a grand perspective, Palmer's students' insights may seem irrelevant.

In physics, after all, particulars do not matter.

Whether two molecules bump into each other doesn't affect the overall thermodynamic state of a steam engine.