Grotius is clear that political affairs are bound by the same moral principles as any other actions. At the opposite extreme was the position of Machiavelli, or at least the one popularly attributed to him, that there is no connection between morality and political action. While Machiavellianism was universally abhorred, there was a school of thought that sought a middle way, holding that actions not normally licit, like lying, might be justified in political affairs by reason of state—”a mean between that which conscience permits and affairs require.”52 The notion was justified in terms of a
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