SOURCE: "The Function of Myth," and "The Function of Violence," in The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom, The John Day Company, Inc., 1943, pp. 119-32.

In the following excerpt, Burnham examines what he perceives as Sorel's contempt for political science.

1. the Function of Myth

Georges Sorel cannot be considered in all respects a Machiavellian. For one thing, he was a political extremist. Though Machiavellian principles are not committed to any single political program, they do not seem to accord naturally with extremism. Further, Sorel partly repudiates, or seems to repudiate, scientific method, and to grant, in certain connections, the legitimacy of intuition and of a metaphysics derived from the French philosopher, Henri Bergson. To the extent that he rejects science, Sorel is certainly outside the Machiavellian tradition.

However, Sorel's repudiation of scientific method is largely appearance. In reality, he attacks not science, but academic pseudo-science, which he calls the "little...