The Philosophy of Leo Strauss

The Philosophy of Leo Strauss
Author: Philipp von Wussow
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN: 9781438478401

Download The Philosophy of Leo Strauss Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In this book, Philipp von Wussow argues that the philosophical project of Leo Strauss must be located in the intersection of culture, religion, and the political. Based on archival research on the philosophy of Strauss, von Wussow provides in-depth interpretations of key texts and their larger theoretical contexts. Presenting the necessary background in German-Jewish philosophy of the interwar period, von Wussow then offers detailed accounts and comprehensive interpretations of Strauss's early masterwork, Philosophy and Law, his wartime lecture "German Nihilism," the sources and the scope of Strauss's critique of modern "relativism," and a close commentary on the late text "Jerusalem and Athens." With its rare blend of close reading and larger perspectives, this book is valuable for students of political philosophy, continental thought, and twentieth-century Jewish philosophy alike. It is indispensable as a guide to Strauss's philosophical project, as well as to some of the most intricate details of his writings. --

Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture

Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture
Author: Philipp von Wussow
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2020-04-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438478410

Download Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

2020 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title In this book, Philipp von Wussow argues that the philosophical project of Leo Strauss must be located in the intersection of culture, religion, and the political. Based on archival research on the philosophy of Strauss, von Wussow provides in-depth interpretations of key texts and their larger theoretical contexts. Presenting the necessary background in German-Jewish philosophy of the interwar period, von Wussow then offers detailed accounts and comprehensive interpretations of Strauss's early masterwork, Philosophy and Law, his wartime lecture "German Nihilism," the sources and the scope of Strauss's critique of modern "relativism," and a close commentary on the late text "Jerusalem and Athens." With its rare blend of close reading and larger perspectives, this book is valuable for students of political philosophy, continental thought, and twentieth-century Jewish philosophy alike. It is indispensable as a guide to Strauss's philosophical project, as well as to some of the most intricate details of his writings.

Leo Strauss on Science

Leo Strauss on Science
Author: Svetozar Y. Minkov
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2016-11-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438463138

Download Leo Strauss on Science Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The first study of Strauss’s confrontation with modern science and its methods. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unpublished archival material, Leo Strauss on Science brings to light the thoughts of Leo Strauss on the problem of science. Introducing us to Strauss’s reflections on the meaning and perplexities of the scientific adventure, Svetozar Y. Minkov explores questions such as: Is there a human wisdom independent of science? What is the relation between poetry and mathematics, or between self-knowledge and theoretical physics? And how necessary is it for the human species to exist immutably in order for the classical analysis of human life to be correct? In pursuing these questions, Minkov aims to change the conversation about Strauss, one of the great thinkers of the past century. Svetozar Y. Minkov is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Roosevelt University and the author of Francis Bacon’s “Inquiry Touching Human Nature”: Virtue, Philosophy, and the Relief of Man’s Estate.

Leo Strauss and the Crisis of Rationalism

Leo Strauss and the Crisis of Rationalism
Author: Corine Pelluchon
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2014-01-14
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438449682

Download Leo Strauss and the Crisis of Rationalism Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

How can Leo Strauss's critique of modernity and his return to tradition, especially Maimonides, help us to save democracy from its inner dangers? In this book, Corine Pelluchon examines Strauss's provocative claim that the conception of man and reason in the thought of the Enlightenment is self-destructive and leads to a new tyranny. Writing in a direct and lucid style, Pelluchon avoids the polemics that have characterized recent debates concerning the links between Strauss and neoconservatives, particularly concerns over Strauss's relation to the extreme right in Germany. Instead she aims to demystify the origins of Strauss's thought and present his relationship to German and Jewish thought in the early twentieth century in a manner accessible not just to the small circles devoted to the study of Strauss, but to a larger public. Strauss's critique of modernity is, she argues, constructive; he neither condemns modernity as a whole nor does he desire a retreat back to the Ancients, where slaves existed and women were not considered citizens. The question is to know whether we can learn something from the Ancients and from Maimonides—and not merely about them.

Philosophy and Law

Philosophy and Law
Author: Leo Strauss
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438421435

Download Philosophy and Law Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Leo Strauss's Philosophy and Law contains a groundbreaking study of the political philosophy of Maimonides and his Islamic predecessors, and it offers an argument on behalf of that philosophy which is also a profound critique of modern philosophy. Here is an entirely new and complete English translation of Strauss's work, which takes as its ideal the exacting standards of accuracy that Strauss himself emphasized in his own work. It includes a prefatory essay introducing the argument of each of the four sections of Philosophy and Law. This is a fresh and challenging treatment of the perennial conflict between reason and revelation, or philosophy and religion. Strauss's key contention in this book is that the most influential modern approaches to this conflict have run aground in ways that reflect their loss of key insights developed by the medieval philosophers of Islam and their Jewish pupils, especially Maimonides. Strauss challenges the modern view that scientific enlightenment must ultimately amount to atheism, and that therefore there can be no such thing as enlightened religion. Through a careful, original, and detailed treatment of central works of the medieval Islamic-Jewish tradition, especially Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, Strauss aims to recover their key insights into this question.

Leo Strauss on Democracy, Technology, and Liberal Education

Leo Strauss on Democracy, Technology, and Liberal Education
Author: Timothy W. Burns
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2021-11-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438486154

Download Leo Strauss on Democracy, Technology, and Liberal Education Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Liberal democracy is today under unprecedented attack from both the left and the right. Offering a fresh and penetrating examination of how Leo Strauss understood the emergence of liberal democracy and what is necessary to sustain and elevate it, Leo Strauss on Democracy, Technology, and Liberal Education explores Strauss' view of the intimate (and troubling) relation between the philosophic promotion of liberal democracy and the turn to the modern scientific-technological project of the "conquest of nature." Timothy W. Burns explicates the political reasoning behind Strauss' recommendation of reminders of genuine political greatness within democracy over and against the failure of nihilistic youth to recognize it. Elucidating what Strauss envisaged by a liberally-educated sub-political or cultural-level aristocracy—one that could elevate and sustain liberal democracy—and the roles that both philosophy and divine-law traditions should have in that education, Burns also lays out Strauss' frequent (though often tacit) engagement with the thought of Heidegger on these issues.

Philosophy, History, and Tyranny

Philosophy, History, and Tyranny
Author: Timothy W. Burns
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2016-11-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438462115

Download Philosophy, History, and Tyranny Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The first comprehensive examination of the debate between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève on the subject of philosophy and tyranny. On Tyranny remains a perennial favorite, possessing a timelessness that few philosophical or scholarly debates have ever achieved. On one hand, On Tyranny is the first book-length work in Leo Strauss’s extended study of Xenophon, and his “Restatement” retains a vivacity and directness that is sometimes absent in his later works. On the other, “Tyranny and Wisdom” is perhaps the most succinct yet fullest articulation of Alexandre Kojève’s overall political thought, and it presents what may be the most uncompromising alternative to Strauss’s position as a whole. This volume contains for the first time a comprehensive and critical examination of the debate from scholars well versed in the thought of Strauss, Kojève, Hegel, Heidegger, and the end of history thesis. Of particular interest will be the appendix, which offers for the first time Kojève’s unabridged response to Strauss, a response previously available only from the Fonds Kojève at Le Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Accessible to students and scholars alike, this volume works equally well in the classroom and as a resource for more advanced research. Timothy W. Burns is Professor of Political Science at Baylor University and the editor of Brill’s Companion to Leo Strauss’ Writings on Classical Political Thought. Bryan-Paul Frost is Elias “Bo” Ackal Jr./BORSF Endowed Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the coeditor (with Jeremy J. Mhire) of The Political Theory of Aristophanes: Explorations in Poetic Wisdom, also published by SUNY Press.

The Crisis of Liberal Democracy

The Crisis of Liberal Democracy
Author: Kenneth L. Deutsch
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 318
Release: 1987-01-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1438401035

Download The Crisis of Liberal Democracy Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The Crisis of Liberal Democracy is the first book devoted exclusively to Leo Strauss, one of the most influential and controversial political thinkers of the twentieth century. This work includes essays which illustrate and evaluate Strauss' teaching on natural right and the tradition of political philosophy and demonstrate how Strauss' perspectives have influenced European and American liberal theory. In keeping with Strauss' commitment to philosophical inquiry, essays critical of his work are included as well.

Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss
Author: Leo Strauss
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0791488829

Download Leo Strauss Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

This translation of eighteen virtually unknown early publications provides access for the first time to the origins of Leo Strauss's thought in the intellectual life of the German Jewish 'renaissance' in the 1920s. Themes range from the Enlightenment critique of the religion of Spinoza and the anti-critique of Jacobi, to the political Zionism of Herzl and the cultural Zionism of Buber and Ahad Ha'am. The essays and reviews reprinted in this volume document a youth caught in the "theological-political" conflict between the irretrievability of premodern religion and the disenchantedness of "honest" atheism, an impossible alternative that precipitated Strauss to seek out the possibility of a return to the level of natural ignorance presupposed in Socratic political philosophy.

Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss
Author: Kenneth L. Deutsch
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 410
Release: 1994
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780847678389

Download Leo Strauss Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In this book, 19 prominent representatives of each side in the basic division among Strauss's followers explore his contribution to political philosophy and Jewish thought. The volume presents the most extensive analysis yet published of Strauss's religious heritage and how it related to his work, and includes Strauss's previously unpublished 'Why We Remain Jews, ' an extraordinary essay concerned with the challenge posed to Judaism by modern secular thought. The extensive introduction interrelates the major themes of Strauss's thought