John P. McCormick
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691183503
- eISBN:
- 9780691187914
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691183503.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter analyzes Leo Strauss' engagement with the democratic elements of Niccolò Machiavelli's political thought; specifically, Machiavelli's self-avowed departure from the ancients in favoring ...
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This chapter analyzes Leo Strauss' engagement with the democratic elements of Niccolò Machiavelli's political thought; specifically, Machiavelli's self-avowed departure from the ancients in favoring the political judgment and participation of the many over the few, and in recommending the people, rather than the nobles, as the ultimate foundation for political authority. It identifies several of Strauss' misinterpretations of Machiavelli's democratic, anti-elitist republicanism and explores tensions and discrepancies within Strauss' reconstruction of Machiavelli's political-philosophical project. Furthermore, Strauss exaggerates Machiavelli's criticisms of peoples and underplays his criticisms of the nobilities within republics. Strauss marshals instances of elite-popular interactions in the Discourses that purportedly demonstrate Machiavelli's preference for elite intervention and manipulation over popular participation and judgment.Less
This chapter analyzes Leo Strauss' engagement with the democratic elements of Niccolò Machiavelli's political thought; specifically, Machiavelli's self-avowed departure from the ancients in favoring the political judgment and participation of the many over the few, and in recommending the people, rather than the nobles, as the ultimate foundation for political authority. It identifies several of Strauss' misinterpretations of Machiavelli's democratic, anti-elitist republicanism and explores tensions and discrepancies within Strauss' reconstruction of Machiavelli's political-philosophical project. Furthermore, Strauss exaggerates Machiavelli's criticisms of peoples and underplays his criticisms of the nobilities within republics. Strauss marshals instances of elite-popular interactions in the Discourses that purportedly demonstrate Machiavelli's preference for elite intervention and manipulation over popular participation and judgment.
Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199794959
- eISBN:
- 9780199949694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794959.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy, European History: BCE to 500CE
Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft, with his paper “From Heresy to Nature: Leo Strauss’s History of Modern Epicureanism,” traces the varying roles of the “Epicurean” throughout Strauss’s ...
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Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft, with his paper “From Heresy to Nature: Leo Strauss’s History of Modern Epicureanism,” traces the varying roles of the “Epicurean” throughout Strauss’s corpus. Wurgaft shows that, despite Strauss’s leanings towards and frequent association with Platonism, Epicureanism nonetheless plays a substantial role in defining his conception of philosophy. In particular, Strauss’s early reflection on Epicureanism as heretical religious critique seems to bear a certain attraction (if only by implication) for Strauss, who denies philosophers the ability to submit to the “salutary law” of religion. At the heart of this attraction lies a particular cross-linguistic pun: apikores (Hbr. “heretic”) phonetically (and perhaps etymologically) suggests Epicurean.Less
Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft, with his paper “From Heresy to Nature: Leo Strauss’s History of Modern Epicureanism,” traces the varying roles of the “Epicurean” throughout Strauss’s corpus. Wurgaft shows that, despite Strauss’s leanings towards and frequent association with Platonism, Epicureanism nonetheless plays a substantial role in defining his conception of philosophy. In particular, Strauss’s early reflection on Epicureanism as heretical religious critique seems to bear a certain attraction (if only by implication) for Strauss, who denies philosophers the ability to submit to the “salutary law” of religion. At the heart of this attraction lies a particular cross-linguistic pun: apikores (Hbr. “heretic”) phonetically (and perhaps etymologically) suggests Epicurean.
Patricia Owens
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199299362
- eISBN:
- 9780191715051
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199299362.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, International Relations and Politics
Arendt articulated the dangers of moralism in the political realm that avoids realist cynicism. She is better placed to challenge the neoconservative vision of international affairs, ideological ...
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Arendt articulated the dangers of moralism in the political realm that avoids realist cynicism. She is better placed to challenge the neoconservative vision of international affairs, ideological conviction, and their relationship to democratic society. Reading Arendt against Leo Strauss suggests that the fundamental problem with neoconservative ideology concerns its understanding of the place of philosophy in the public realm, the relationship between political thought and practice, ideas, and action. This sheds light on contemporary neoconservative claims about the power of ideas to change the world (through the invasion and occupation of Iraq), and widespread, but misguided, claims about their propensity to condone political lies. There is always a temptation to lie in politics because the lie is an intervention into the common world. This is only made worse by ideological thinking. Neoconservatives may be experts at selling wars but seem less adept at winning them.Less
Arendt articulated the dangers of moralism in the political realm that avoids realist cynicism. She is better placed to challenge the neoconservative vision of international affairs, ideological conviction, and their relationship to democratic society. Reading Arendt against Leo Strauss suggests that the fundamental problem with neoconservative ideology concerns its understanding of the place of philosophy in the public realm, the relationship between political thought and practice, ideas, and action. This sheds light on contemporary neoconservative claims about the power of ideas to change the world (through the invasion and occupation of Iraq), and widespread, but misguided, claims about their propensity to condone political lies. There is always a temptation to lie in politics because the lie is an intervention into the common world. This is only made worse by ideological thinking. Neoconservatives may be experts at selling wars but seem less adept at winning them.
Nathan Tarcov
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479812370
- eISBN:
- 9781479852697
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479812370.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter determines Leo Strauss’s own stance toward American conservative thought and politics. Strauss addresses American conservatism most explicitly and extensively in his preface to ...
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This chapter determines Leo Strauss’s own stance toward American conservative thought and politics. Strauss addresses American conservatism most explicitly and extensively in his preface to Liberalism, Ancient and Modern. He notes that liberalism and conservatism have a common basis in liberal democracy and therefore share an antagonism to Communism. Elsewhere in that book, Strauss affirms that the most important concern for political scientists in his time would not be the opposition between liberalism and conservatism but “the qualitative difference which amounts to a conflict, between liberal democracy and Communism.” Nonetheless, he discerns a profound difference between liberal and conservative opposition to Communism. The chapter then studies the possible implications of his thought for American conservative thought and politics.Less
This chapter determines Leo Strauss’s own stance toward American conservative thought and politics. Strauss addresses American conservatism most explicitly and extensively in his preface to Liberalism, Ancient and Modern. He notes that liberalism and conservatism have a common basis in liberal democracy and therefore share an antagonism to Communism. Elsewhere in that book, Strauss affirms that the most important concern for political scientists in his time would not be the opposition between liberalism and conservatism but “the qualitative difference which amounts to a conflict, between liberal democracy and Communism.” Nonetheless, he discerns a profound difference between liberal and conservative opposition to Communism. The chapter then studies the possible implications of his thought for American conservative thought and politics.
Bradley J. Birzer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166186
- eISBN:
- 9780813166643
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166186.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines Kirk’s friendships with Robert Nisbet, Leo Strauss, Flannery O’Connor, Eric Voegelin, and Ray Bradbury. It also tells the disastrous story of Kirk’s creation and editing of a ...
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This chapter examines Kirk’s friendships with Robert Nisbet, Leo Strauss, Flannery O’Connor, Eric Voegelin, and Ray Bradbury. It also tells the disastrous story of Kirk’s creation and editing of a nonideological journal of thought and scholarship, Modern Age, only to be thwarted by bigotry and editorial disagreements with the publisher.Less
This chapter examines Kirk’s friendships with Robert Nisbet, Leo Strauss, Flannery O’Connor, Eric Voegelin, and Ray Bradbury. It also tells the disastrous story of Kirk’s creation and editing of a nonideological journal of thought and scholarship, Modern Age, only to be thwarted by bigotry and editorial disagreements with the publisher.
Heinrich Meier
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226275857
- eISBN:
- 9780226275994
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226275994.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter studies Leo Strauss's most complex and controversial book, Thoughts on Machiavelli. Strauss—who introduced the term “political philosophy” into philosophic discussion—links in his ...
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This chapter studies Leo Strauss's most complex and controversial book, Thoughts on Machiavelli. Strauss—who introduced the term “political philosophy” into philosophic discussion—links in his longest work the problem of Socrates, which designates the starting point of political philosophy, with the problem of Machiavelli, which names the beginning of modern political philosophy. Between Socrates and Machiavelli stands the theological and the political challenges of revealed religion, about which Strauss has presented with Thoughts on Machiavelli the most astonishing treatise. It concerns first the historical answer to the altered political situation that the rule of revealed religion created. Above all, however, it pertains to the philosophic answer to the challenge implied by the claim of truth of revealed religion.Less
This chapter studies Leo Strauss's most complex and controversial book, Thoughts on Machiavelli. Strauss—who introduced the term “political philosophy” into philosophic discussion—links in his longest work the problem of Socrates, which designates the starting point of political philosophy, with the problem of Machiavelli, which names the beginning of modern political philosophy. Between Socrates and Machiavelli stands the theological and the political challenges of revealed religion, about which Strauss has presented with Thoughts on Machiavelli the most astonishing treatise. It concerns first the historical answer to the altered political situation that the rule of revealed religion created. Above all, however, it pertains to the philosophic answer to the challenge implied by the claim of truth of revealed religion.
Linda M. G. Zerilli
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226397849
- eISBN:
- 9780226398037
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226398037.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Examines Leo Strauss's well-know critique of historicism with an eye to his central concern with judgment and the easy acceptance of authority in the absence of reasons. By contrast with much of the ...
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Examines Leo Strauss's well-know critique of historicism with an eye to his central concern with judgment and the easy acceptance of authority in the absence of reasons. By contrast with much of the polemic surrounding Strauss and his influence on neoconservative thinkers blamed for the foreign policies of the George W. Bush administration, the chapter tries to recover from Strauss a clearer idea of what critical judgment would be. Like Arendt, Strauss accepts the fact that the thread of tradition has been broken and there is no way back to older forms of political or theological authority. Hence, the capacity to judge critically and reflectively comes into its own in modernity. Unlike Arendt, he cannot quite bring himself to imagine that ordinary citizens would be capable of a practice of judgment that did not resort to a modern version of Plato's "noble lie."Less
Examines Leo Strauss's well-know critique of historicism with an eye to his central concern with judgment and the easy acceptance of authority in the absence of reasons. By contrast with much of the polemic surrounding Strauss and his influence on neoconservative thinkers blamed for the foreign policies of the George W. Bush administration, the chapter tries to recover from Strauss a clearer idea of what critical judgment would be. Like Arendt, Strauss accepts the fact that the thread of tradition has been broken and there is no way back to older forms of political or theological authority. Hence, the capacity to judge critically and reflectively comes into its own in modernity. Unlike Arendt, he cannot quite bring himself to imagine that ordinary citizens would be capable of a practice of judgment that did not resort to a modern version of Plato's "noble lie."
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226764023
- eISBN:
- 9780226763903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226763903.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter focuses on Leo Strauss, a German-Jewish émigré and the product of the pre-World War I Gymnasium. Strauss studied at several universities, finally taking his doctorate at Hamburg in 1921. ...
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This chapter focuses on Leo Strauss, a German-Jewish émigré and the product of the pre-World War I Gymnasium. Strauss studied at several universities, finally taking his doctorate at Hamburg in 1921. He was a research assistant at an institute for Jewish research in Berlin before leaving Germany in 1932 to settle first in England and later in the United States, where he taught principally at the New School for Social Research in New York and later at the University of Chicago. It was during his period in Chicago that Strauss had his greatest influence. He was, by most accounts, a compelling teacher, and, like all good teachers, attracted students, many of whom came to regard themselves as part of a distinctive school. By the time of his death in 1973, Strauss had written more than a dozen books and around one hundred articles and reviews.Less
This chapter focuses on Leo Strauss, a German-Jewish émigré and the product of the pre-World War I Gymnasium. Strauss studied at several universities, finally taking his doctorate at Hamburg in 1921. He was a research assistant at an institute for Jewish research in Berlin before leaving Germany in 1932 to settle first in England and later in the United States, where he taught principally at the New School for Social Research in New York and later at the University of Chicago. It was during his period in Chicago that Strauss had his greatest influence. He was, by most accounts, a compelling teacher, and, like all good teachers, attracted students, many of whom came to regard themselves as part of a distinctive school. By the time of his death in 1973, Strauss had written more than a dozen books and around one hundred articles and reviews.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226764023
- eISBN:
- 9780226763903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226763903.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
The one partial exception to Strauss's generally curt treatment of German philosophy is Martin Heidegger. He described how, upon hearing Heidegger in 1922, he slowly came to recognize that Heidegger ...
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The one partial exception to Strauss's generally curt treatment of German philosophy is Martin Heidegger. He described how, upon hearing Heidegger in 1922, he slowly came to recognize that Heidegger was preparing a “revolution” in thought the likes of which had not been experienced since Hegel. Heidegger brought to the study of philosophy a “passion” for the problems which showed up the “lostness” and emptiness of the then-regnant academic orthodoxies, including that of his erstwhile dissertation adviser, the neo-Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer. The meaning of Heidegger's “radical historicism” was not void of political consequences. Heidegger was not the only thinker but certainly the greatest thinker to embrace Hitler's 1933 revolution. The “Heidegger problem” has become something of a public scandal, one that Strauss pointed to long ago. “One is bound to misunderstand Heidegger's thought radically,” he wrote, if one does not see its “intimate connection” to the events of 1933.Less
The one partial exception to Strauss's generally curt treatment of German philosophy is Martin Heidegger. He described how, upon hearing Heidegger in 1922, he slowly came to recognize that Heidegger was preparing a “revolution” in thought the likes of which had not been experienced since Hegel. Heidegger brought to the study of philosophy a “passion” for the problems which showed up the “lostness” and emptiness of the then-regnant academic orthodoxies, including that of his erstwhile dissertation adviser, the neo-Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer. The meaning of Heidegger's “radical historicism” was not void of political consequences. Heidegger was not the only thinker but certainly the greatest thinker to embrace Hitler's 1933 revolution. The “Heidegger problem” has become something of a public scandal, one that Strauss pointed to long ago. “One is bound to misunderstand Heidegger's thought radically,” he wrote, if one does not see its “intimate connection” to the events of 1933.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226764023
- eISBN:
- 9780226763903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226763903.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter discusses the philosophical significance of politics in Strauss's view. The expression “political philosophy” has two distinct meanings: it can mean the philosophical examination of ...
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This chapter discusses the philosophical significance of politics in Strauss's view. The expression “political philosophy” has two distinct meanings: it can mean the philosophical examination of politics or it can mean the political treatment of philosophy. In the first case, it denotes an object of inquiry and in the second, a distinctive manner of writing or rhetoric. Strauss wrote to strengthen those aspects of American public life that would prevent constitutional democracy from devolving into mass democracy. At its most basic level, he treated the American polity as a product of modernity and the Enlightenment. In Natural Right and History, his first book to address a large audience of American social scientists, Strauss accepts the view that Locke's theory of property is at the root of the modern “spirit of capitalism.” He also acknowledges that contemporary tyranny has its source in the Machiavellian dictum that the ends justify the means.Less
This chapter discusses the philosophical significance of politics in Strauss's view. The expression “political philosophy” has two distinct meanings: it can mean the philosophical examination of politics or it can mean the political treatment of philosophy. In the first case, it denotes an object of inquiry and in the second, a distinctive manner of writing or rhetoric. Strauss wrote to strengthen those aspects of American public life that would prevent constitutional democracy from devolving into mass democracy. At its most basic level, he treated the American polity as a product of modernity and the Enlightenment. In Natural Right and History, his first book to address a large audience of American social scientists, Strauss accepts the view that Locke's theory of property is at the root of the modern “spirit of capitalism.” He also acknowledges that contemporary tyranny has its source in the Machiavellian dictum that the ends justify the means.
Steven B. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226764023
- eISBN:
- 9780226763903
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226763903.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
Interest in Leo Strauss is greater now than at any time since his death, because of the link between his thought and the political movement called “neoconservatism.” This book depicts Strauss not as ...
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Interest in Leo Strauss is greater now than at any time since his death, because of the link between his thought and the political movement called “neoconservatism.” This book depicts Strauss not as a high priest of neoconservatism but as a friend of liberal democracy, showing that his defense of liberal democracy was closely connected with his skepticism of both the extreme Left and the extreme Right. The author asserts that philosophical skepticism defined Strauss's thought. It was as a skeptic that Strauss considered the seemingly irreconcilable conflict between reason and revelation—a conflict he dubbed the “theologico-political problem.” Throughout his life, Strauss pondered over the relation of the political order to revelation in general and Judaism in particular. The author addresses Strauss's views on religion and examines his thought on philosophical and political issues. The author assesses Strauss's attempt to direct the teaching of political science away from the examination of mass behavior and interest-group politics toward the study of the philosophical principles on which politics is based.Less
Interest in Leo Strauss is greater now than at any time since his death, because of the link between his thought and the political movement called “neoconservatism.” This book depicts Strauss not as a high priest of neoconservatism but as a friend of liberal democracy, showing that his defense of liberal democracy was closely connected with his skepticism of both the extreme Left and the extreme Right. The author asserts that philosophical skepticism defined Strauss's thought. It was as a skeptic that Strauss considered the seemingly irreconcilable conflict between reason and revelation—a conflict he dubbed the “theologico-political problem.” Throughout his life, Strauss pondered over the relation of the political order to revelation in general and Judaism in particular. The author addresses Strauss's views on religion and examines his thought on philosophical and political issues. The author assesses Strauss's attempt to direct the teaching of political science away from the examination of mass behavior and interest-group politics toward the study of the philosophical principles on which politics is based.
Michael P. Zuckert and Catherine H. Zuckert
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226135731
- eISBN:
- 9780226135878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226135878.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
More than most thinkers of the 20th Century, Leo Strauss polarized his audience. Thus has arisen the phenomenon, nearly unique among the century’s academic thinkers, of a recognized group of ...
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More than most thinkers of the 20th Century, Leo Strauss polarized his audience. Thus has arisen the phenomenon, nearly unique among the century’s academic thinkers, of a recognized group of “followers,” called “Straussians.” But that label suggests much greater unity than exists among those influenced by Strauss. The number and the diversity of subject matter studied make it impossible to canvass or catalogue the universe of “Straussians.” The principle of selection to be followed here is to focus on some of the major lines of cleavage discernible among the “Straussians.” The disagreements in question here center on certain puzzles or now-familiar ambiguities in Strauss’s thinking. The two most fundamental puzzles are: (1) what is the status of religion, or the problem of Athens and Jerusalem, and (2) what is the status of morality, or the problem of Plato and Aristotle.Less
More than most thinkers of the 20th Century, Leo Strauss polarized his audience. Thus has arisen the phenomenon, nearly unique among the century’s academic thinkers, of a recognized group of “followers,” called “Straussians.” But that label suggests much greater unity than exists among those influenced by Strauss. The number and the diversity of subject matter studied make it impossible to canvass or catalogue the universe of “Straussians.” The principle of selection to be followed here is to focus on some of the major lines of cleavage discernible among the “Straussians.” The disagreements in question here center on certain puzzles or now-familiar ambiguities in Strauss’s thinking. The two most fundamental puzzles are: (1) what is the status of religion, or the problem of Athens and Jerusalem, and (2) what is the status of morality, or the problem of Plato and Aristotle.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226764023
- eISBN:
- 9780226763903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226763903.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
The author insists that the political problems faced by Jews are different from those faced by any other people. At the risk of arbitrariness, it is suggested that Jewish political thought is ...
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The author insists that the political problems faced by Jews are different from those faced by any other people. At the risk of arbitrariness, it is suggested that Jewish political thought is uniquely marked by a preoccupation with such themes as exile, homelessness, and marginality. The position of Jews in modern, enlightened, liberal society is the most tangible contemporary expression of the theologico-political problem. Strauss traces his own preoccupation with this problem back to his experiences as “a young Jew born and raised in Germany.” For him, this problem became a conflict between assimilation and eventual absorption in a universal humanity, or the assertion of a stubborn loyalty to a particular tradition. When the particular tradition in question claims divine or revealed origins, as Judaism does, this conflict is made all the more difficult.Less
The author insists that the political problems faced by Jews are different from those faced by any other people. At the risk of arbitrariness, it is suggested that Jewish political thought is uniquely marked by a preoccupation with such themes as exile, homelessness, and marginality. The position of Jews in modern, enlightened, liberal society is the most tangible contemporary expression of the theologico-political problem. Strauss traces his own preoccupation with this problem back to his experiences as “a young Jew born and raised in Germany.” For him, this problem became a conflict between assimilation and eventual absorption in a universal humanity, or the assertion of a stubborn loyalty to a particular tradition. When the particular tradition in question claims divine or revealed origins, as Judaism does, this conflict is made all the more difficult.
Michael P. Zuckert and Catherine H. Zuckert
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226135731
- eISBN:
- 9780226135878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226135878.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Among the most widely known of Strauss’s ideas was his call for a return to pre-modern thought. That call for return was understood by him to stand in contrast to the intellectual orientation of our ...
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Among the most widely known of Strauss’s ideas was his call for a return to pre-modern thought. That call for return was understood by him to stand in contrast to the intellectual orientation of our day toward progress. He made the contrast between these two orientations thematic in lectures called, appropriately, “Progress or Return?” He made two main points. He held, first, that the modern idea of progress is fundamentally incoherent, because based on an untenable combination of concepts drawn from the two fundamentally incompatible “roots” of the Western tradition: ancient or classical philosophy and Biblical revelation. Second, in light of the failure of the modern project, he urged his contemporaries to return to and “live the tension between” the two “roots” of the Western tradition, each of which is more coherent than later attempts to synthesize them.Less
Among the most widely known of Strauss’s ideas was his call for a return to pre-modern thought. That call for return was understood by him to stand in contrast to the intellectual orientation of our day toward progress. He made the contrast between these two orientations thematic in lectures called, appropriately, “Progress or Return?” He made two main points. He held, first, that the modern idea of progress is fundamentally incoherent, because based on an untenable combination of concepts drawn from the two fundamentally incompatible “roots” of the Western tradition: ancient or classical philosophy and Biblical revelation. Second, in light of the failure of the modern project, he urged his contemporaries to return to and “live the tension between” the two “roots” of the Western tradition, each of which is more coherent than later attempts to synthesize them.
Laurence Lampert
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226039480
- eISBN:
- 9780226039510
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226039510.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This book argues that the enduring importance of Leo Strauss lies in his recovery of the exoteric art of writing. That art was universally practiced by the greatest thinkers in Western philosophy and ...
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This book argues that the enduring importance of Leo Strauss lies in his recovery of the exoteric art of writing. That art was universally practiced by the greatest thinkers in Western philosophy and poetry prior to the modern Enlightenment. The book begins with Strauss’s own account of his recovery of exotericism (also called esotericism) in private letters he wrote to Jacob Klein in 1938-39. The candor of those letters makes them singular in a body of work marked by its own forms of caution or exotericism. The book then treats an essay of great importance in which Strauss not only showed how the Medieval philosopher Halevi practiced exotericism but also indicated why Strauss himself adopted exotericism. In four chapters dealing with “The Socratic Enlightenment” the book discusses first Strauss’s single-handed recovery of Xenophon from modern ridicule and neglect, focusing on Socrates’ theological-political program as Xenophon presented it. The chapter on Plato shows why Plato’s dialogues were always central to Strauss’s understanding of philosophy. A chapter on Seth Benardete’s book on Homer’s Odyssey shows that philosophy and political philosophy can, as Strauss suspected, be traced back to Homer. The final three chapters treat essays by Strauss on the modern Enlightenment in which he criticizes it and demotes it relative to the ancient and medieval Enlightenment. Here the book argues against Strauss’s evaluation and shows why Nietzsche’s attempt to advance the modern Enlightenment is wiser, morally superior, and truer to the history of exotericism.Less
This book argues that the enduring importance of Leo Strauss lies in his recovery of the exoteric art of writing. That art was universally practiced by the greatest thinkers in Western philosophy and poetry prior to the modern Enlightenment. The book begins with Strauss’s own account of his recovery of exotericism (also called esotericism) in private letters he wrote to Jacob Klein in 1938-39. The candor of those letters makes them singular in a body of work marked by its own forms of caution or exotericism. The book then treats an essay of great importance in which Strauss not only showed how the Medieval philosopher Halevi practiced exotericism but also indicated why Strauss himself adopted exotericism. In four chapters dealing with “The Socratic Enlightenment” the book discusses first Strauss’s single-handed recovery of Xenophon from modern ridicule and neglect, focusing on Socrates’ theological-political program as Xenophon presented it. The chapter on Plato shows why Plato’s dialogues were always central to Strauss’s understanding of philosophy. A chapter on Seth Benardete’s book on Homer’s Odyssey shows that philosophy and political philosophy can, as Strauss suspected, be traced back to Homer. The final three chapters treat essays by Strauss on the modern Enlightenment in which he criticizes it and demotes it relative to the ancient and medieval Enlightenment. Here the book argues against Strauss’s evaluation and shows why Nietzsche’s attempt to advance the modern Enlightenment is wiser, morally superior, and truer to the history of exotericism.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226764023
- eISBN:
- 9780226763903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226763903.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
The conjunction of the terms “Platonic” and “liberalism” may seem oxymoronic. The most influential interpretation of Plato in the second half of the twentieth century held him to be an intransigent ...
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The conjunction of the terms “Platonic” and “liberalism” may seem oxymoronic. The most influential interpretation of Plato in the second half of the twentieth century held him to be an intransigent enemy of liberalism and the “open society.” His harsh proposals for a closed caste system and for the censorship of poetry and literature, his radical measures to eliminate the family and private property, and his investiture of political authority in an all-wise and all-powerful philosopher-king must strike even a sympathetic reader as radically opposed to liberal beliefs in freedom of thought and expression, a robust sphere of civil society and private life, the importance of limited constitutional government supported by a system of checks and balances, and a skeptical disposition toward the rule of experts. Critics of Strauss's Plato have attacked the methodological premises of Straussian hermeneutics. The method of esoteric reading, taken originally from the Jewish and Arabic Platonists of the middle ages, is said to be inherently arbitrary and nonverifiable.Less
The conjunction of the terms “Platonic” and “liberalism” may seem oxymoronic. The most influential interpretation of Plato in the second half of the twentieth century held him to be an intransigent enemy of liberalism and the “open society.” His harsh proposals for a closed caste system and for the censorship of poetry and literature, his radical measures to eliminate the family and private property, and his investiture of political authority in an all-wise and all-powerful philosopher-king must strike even a sympathetic reader as radically opposed to liberal beliefs in freedom of thought and expression, a robust sphere of civil society and private life, the importance of limited constitutional government supported by a system of checks and balances, and a skeptical disposition toward the rule of experts. Critics of Strauss's Plato have attacked the methodological premises of Straussian hermeneutics. The method of esoteric reading, taken originally from the Jewish and Arabic Platonists of the middle ages, is said to be inherently arbitrary and nonverifiable.
Laurence Lampert
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226039480
- eISBN:
- 9780226039510
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226039510.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Strauss’s 1938-39 letters to Jacob Klein contain the most explicit examples of exoteric writing in all of Strauss’s work. Strauss also discusses directly the explosive character of a practice that ...
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Strauss’s 1938-39 letters to Jacob Klein contain the most explicit examples of exoteric writing in all of Strauss’s work. Strauss also discusses directly the explosive character of a practice that shows the great thinkers to be systematic dissemblers who misrepresent their true views for rational reasons. His discoveries begin with Maimonides and lead back to the Greek teachers of the later practitioners of exotericism. Strauss’s letters treat the historians Herodotus and Thucydides and then Xenophon who takes on special importance for Strauss. Plato becomes a constant presence in the letters as the master practitioner of the writing art. Xenophon and Plato provide dual access to their teacher Socrates who becomes the uniquely important source of philosophic exotericism. Strauss shows how Hesiod practices the exoteric art and he suspects the same of Homer. Theological-political themes are of special importance, as is the issue of the rational status of morality.Less
Strauss’s 1938-39 letters to Jacob Klein contain the most explicit examples of exoteric writing in all of Strauss’s work. Strauss also discusses directly the explosive character of a practice that shows the great thinkers to be systematic dissemblers who misrepresent their true views for rational reasons. His discoveries begin with Maimonides and lead back to the Greek teachers of the later practitioners of exotericism. Strauss’s letters treat the historians Herodotus and Thucydides and then Xenophon who takes on special importance for Strauss. Plato becomes a constant presence in the letters as the master practitioner of the writing art. Xenophon and Plato provide dual access to their teacher Socrates who becomes the uniquely important source of philosophic exotericism. Strauss shows how Hesiod practices the exoteric art and he suspects the same of Homer. Theological-political themes are of special importance, as is the issue of the rational status of morality.
Victoria Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226083872
- eISBN:
- 9780226083902
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226083902.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter explores Leo Strauss’s reading of Spinoza in Spinoza’s Critique of Religion. It then argues that Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise offers a critique of political theology that is ...
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This chapter explores Leo Strauss’s reading of Spinoza in Spinoza’s Critique of Religion. It then argues that Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise offers a critique of political theology that is influenced by Machiavelli’s notion of civil religion. Finally, it suggests that Spinoza advances a notion of textuality that has much in common with the modern notion that literature enacts the critique of ideology.Less
This chapter explores Leo Strauss’s reading of Spinoza in Spinoza’s Critique of Religion. It then argues that Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise offers a critique of political theology that is influenced by Machiavelli’s notion of civil religion. Finally, it suggests that Spinoza advances a notion of textuality that has much in common with the modern notion that literature enacts the critique of ideology.
Victoria Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226314976
- eISBN:
- 9780226314990
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226314990.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter explores the meaning of culture and why it was anathema to both defenders (e.g., Schmitt) and critics (e.g., Strauss) of political theology in early twentieth-century Germany. It ...
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This chapter explores the meaning of culture and why it was anathema to both defenders (e.g., Schmitt) and critics (e.g., Strauss) of political theology in early twentieth-century Germany. It suggests that culture was seen by these writers as a product of early modern hermeneutics and the Enlightenment critique of religion. While its critics saw culture as a symptom of historicism and relativism, its defenders made culture a bulwark against political theology. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 1 briefly discusses the stakes of the idea of culture in early twentieth-century debates about history and political theology. Section 2 offers an account of the early work of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss on political theology and its relation to modern culture. Section 3 reads Spinoza as elaborating a defense of culture in response to Strauss. Finally, Section 4 looks at a modern defense of the idea of culture (that of Hannah Arendt) and a modern defense of the relevance of Spinoza for thinking about literature (Althusser and Macherey), both of which help us to understand what it might mean to think of literary culture as a bulwark against political theology and a model of political judgment.Less
This chapter explores the meaning of culture and why it was anathema to both defenders (e.g., Schmitt) and critics (e.g., Strauss) of political theology in early twentieth-century Germany. It suggests that culture was seen by these writers as a product of early modern hermeneutics and the Enlightenment critique of religion. While its critics saw culture as a symptom of historicism and relativism, its defenders made culture a bulwark against political theology. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 1 briefly discusses the stakes of the idea of culture in early twentieth-century debates about history and political theology. Section 2 offers an account of the early work of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss on political theology and its relation to modern culture. Section 3 reads Spinoza as elaborating a defense of culture in response to Strauss. Finally, Section 4 looks at a modern defense of the idea of culture (that of Hannah Arendt) and a modern defense of the relevance of Spinoza for thinking about literature (Althusser and Macherey), both of which help us to understand what it might mean to think of literary culture as a bulwark against political theology and a model of political judgment.
Michael P. Zuckert and Catherine H. Zuckert
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226135731
- eISBN:
- 9780226135878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226135878.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Strauss took historicism more seriously as a threat to philosophy than he took positivism, for he believed the latter naturally transformed itself into the former. He defined historicism as the ...
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Strauss took historicism more seriously as a threat to philosophy than he took positivism, for he believed the latter naturally transformed itself into the former. He defined historicism as the replacement of philosophic questions with historical questions; and he labored to rescue philosophy from it. He also, paradoxically, engaged in historical studies and defended his own work by arguing for the necessity of a “fusion” of philosophy and history in our time, affirming all the while that “political philosophy is fundamentally different from the history of political philosophy.” The former seeks to answer “the question of the nature of political things,” whereas the latter seeks to discover “how this or that philosopher or all philosophers have approached, discussed or answered the philosophic question.” The one question, Strauss insisted, “cannot possibly be mistaken” for the other. His refutation of historicism involved a philosophical confrontation with its most philosophic form in Heidegger and the adumbration of his theory of esotericism.Less
Strauss took historicism more seriously as a threat to philosophy than he took positivism, for he believed the latter naturally transformed itself into the former. He defined historicism as the replacement of philosophic questions with historical questions; and he labored to rescue philosophy from it. He also, paradoxically, engaged in historical studies and defended his own work by arguing for the necessity of a “fusion” of philosophy and history in our time, affirming all the while that “political philosophy is fundamentally different from the history of political philosophy.” The former seeks to answer “the question of the nature of political things,” whereas the latter seeks to discover “how this or that philosopher or all philosophers have approached, discussed or answered the philosophic question.” The one question, Strauss insisted, “cannot possibly be mistaken” for the other. His refutation of historicism involved a philosophical confrontation with its most philosophic form in Heidegger and the adumbration of his theory of esotericism.
