Preface Abbreviations Introduction: The Relation between Political Philosophy and Natural Science Part I. Political and Psychological Preconditions for Recovering Socratic Science 1. The Rediscovery of Socratic Dialectic: Strauss on Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political 2. The “Fundamental Political Predicament”: Strauss on Plato’s Laws, Book III Part II. The Origin and Nature of Philosophy 3. The Natural Frame of Reference and the Possibility of a Comprehensive Science 4. Natural Right and History (ch. 3) on the Origin and Nature of Philosophy Part III. Divine Revelation and the Possibility of Science 5. Strauss’s Introduction to “Platonic Studies” in Modern Times 6. Revelation and the Problem of Knowledge Part IV. The Foundations and Directions of Modern Philosophy and Science 7. Science and Politics in Strauss’s Course on Natural Right (1962) 8. “An Irony Beyond Machiavelli’s Irony”: A Reading of the Concluding Six Paragraphs of Thoughts on Machiavelli Concluding Remarks Acknowledgments Appendix Notes Bibliography Index