Studies in Platonic political philosophy / Leo Strauss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strauss, Leo, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political science--Greece--History.

Political science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (269 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago, Illinois : University of Chicago Press, [1983]

Summary:

One of the outstanding thinkers of our time offers in this book his final words to posterity. Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy was well underway at the time of Leo Strauss's death in 1973. Having chosen the title for the book, he selected the most important writings of his later years and arranged them to clarify the issues in political philosophy that occupied his attention throughout his life. As his choice of title indicates, the heart of Strauss's work is Platonism—a Platonism that is altogether unorthodox and highly controversial. These essays consider, among others, Heidegger, Husserl, Nietzsche, Marx, Moses Maimonides, Machiavelli, and of course Plato himself to test the Platonic understanding of the conflict between philosophy and political society. Strauss argues that an awesome spritual impoverishment has engulfed modernity because of our dimming awareness of that conflict. Thomas Pangle's Introduction places the work within the context of the entire Straussian corpus and focuses especially on Strauss's late Socratic writings as a key to his mature thought. For those already familiar with Strauss, Pangle's essay will provoke thought and debate; for beginning readers of Strauss, it provides a fine introduction. A complete bibliography of Strauss's writings if included.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Abbreviations

1 Philosophy as Rigorous Science and Political Philosophy

2 On Plato's Apology of Socrates and Crito

3 On the Euthydemus

4 Preliminary Observations on the Gods in Thucydides' Work

5 Xenophon's Anabasis

6 On Natural Law

7 Jerusalem and Athens: Some Preliminary Reflections

8 Note on the Plan of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil

9 Notes on Maimonides' Book of Knowledge

10 Note on Maimonides' Letter on Astrology

11 Note on Maimonides' Treatise on the Art of Logic

12 Niccolo Machiavelli

13 Review of C. B. Macpherson The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke

14 Review of J. L. Talmon The Nature of Jewish HistoryIts Universal Significance

15 Introductory Essay for Hermann Cohen Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism

Leo Strauss 1899-1973 A Bibliography

Index of Authors

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780226193878

022619387X