"Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy offers a welcome exposition and defense of Strauss as a political philosopher. Given the considerable range and depth of Strauss's writings, serious readers could use a reliable overview and a connecting thread for seeing their way through them, which the Zuckerts seek to provide. Of the recent books on Strauss, none matches this one in scope or detail." (Martin Yaffe, University of North Texas)"

Leo Strauss and his alleged political influence regarding the Iraq War have in recent years been the subject of significant media attention, including stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Time even called him "one of the most influential men in American politics." With The Truth about Leo Strauss, Michael P. and Catherine H. Zuckert challenged the many claims about this notoriously complex thinker. Now, with Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy, they turn their attention to a more comprehensive interpretation of Strauss' thought as a whole. For Strauss, political philosophy presented a "problem" to which there have been a variety of solutions proposed over the course of Western history. Strauss' work, they show, revolved around recovering - and restoring-political philosophy to its original Socratic form. Since positivism and historicism represented two intellectual currents that undermined the possibility of a Socratic political philosophy, the first part of the book is devoted to Strauss' critique of these two positions. Then the authors explore Strauss' interpretation of both ancient and modern canonical political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Locke. Strauss' often-unconventional readings of these philosophers, they argue, pointed to solutions to the problem of political philosophy. Finally, the authors examine Strauss' thought in the context of the twentieth century, when his chief interlocutors were Schmitt, Husserl, Heidegger, and Nietzsche. The book ultimately shows Strauss' writings as an attempt to reveal how characteristics of ancient and modern thought derive from different modes of solving the problem of political philosophy and why he considered the ancient solution superior.
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Leo Strauss and his alleged political influence regarding the Iraq War have in recent years been the subject of significant media attention. In this title, the authors turn their attention to a more comprehensive interpretation of Strauss' thought as a whole.
Read more

Product details

ISBN
9780226135731
Published
2014-06-30
Publisher
The University of Chicago Press; University of Chicago Press
Weight
680 gr
Height
23 mm
Width
16 mm
Thickness
3 mm
Age
UU, UP, 05
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Number of pages
416

Biographical note

Michael P. Zuckert is a Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. Catherine H. Zuckert is a Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. Together, they are the authors of The Truth about Leo Strauss, also published by the University of Chicago Press.