The Cambridge Companion to Leo StraussSteven B. Smith Leo Strauss was a central figure in the 20th century renaissance of political philosophy. The essays of The Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss provide a comprehensive and non-partisan survey of the major themes and problems that constituted Strauss's work. These include his revival of the great "quarrel between the ancients and the moderns," his examination of tension between Jerusalem and Athens, and most controversially his recovery of the tradition of esoteric writing. The volume also examines Strauss's complex relation to a range of contemporary political movements and thinkers, including Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Gershom Scholem, as well as the creation of a distinctive school of "Straussian" political philosophy. |
Contents
1 Introduction | 1 |
2 Leo Strauss | 13 |
3 Leo Strauss and the TheologicoPolitical Predicament | 41 |
4 Strausss Recovery of Esotericism | 63 |
5 Strausss Return to Premodern Thought | 93 |
6 Leo Strauss and the Problem of the Modern | 119 |
7 The Medieval Arabic Enlightenment | 137 |
9 Leo Strausss Qualified Embrace of Liberal Democracy | 193 |
10 Strauss and Social Science | 215 |
11 The Complementarity of Political Philosophy and Liberal Education in the Thought of Leo Strauss | 241 |
12 Straussians | 263 |
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| 293 | |
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Common terms and phrases
According to Strauss Alfarabi American ancient argument Aristotelian Aristotle Averroes believed Benardete Bible biblical Carl Schmitt Chicago Press claim classical political philosophy Cohen conception criticism Critique of Religion democratic dialogue Edited Enlightenment esoteric esotericism essay eternal ethics fundamental German Nihilism Gershom Scholem Greek Guttmann Halevi Heidegger Hermann Cohen Hobbes human Iewish intellectual interpretation IPCM Islamic Iudaism knowledge Kuzari Leo Strauss liberal democracy Liberal Education losophy Machiavelli Maimonides Maimonides’s means medieval Meier moral Natural Right Nietzsche nihilism philos philoso Philosophy and Law Plato political philosophy political science Preface to SCR principle question rational RCPR reading reason refute regime Republic revelation scholar Scholem sense social science society Socrates Spinoza Strauss argued Strauss suggests Straussians teaching tension theologico-political predicament Theologico-Political Problem things thinkers thought tion tradition trans truth tyranny understanding University of Chicago University Press virtue Weber wisdom writing wrote Xenophon Zionism