Reading Leo Strauss
Politics, Philosophy, Judaism
Smith asserts that this philosophical skepticism defined Strauss’s thought. It was as a skeptic, Smith argues, that Strauss considered the seemingly irreconcilable conflict between reason and revelation—a conflict Strauss dubbed the “theologico-political problem.” Calling this problem “the theme of my investigations,” Strauss asked the same fundamental question throughout his life: what is the relation of the political order to revelation in general and Judaism in particular? Smith organizes his book with this question, first addressing Strauss’s views on religion and then examining his thought on philosophical and political issues.
In his investigation of these philosophical and political issues, Smith assesses Strauss’s attempt to direct the teaching of political science away from the examination of mass behavior and interest group politics and toward the study of the philosophical principles on which politics are based. With his provocative, lucid essays, Smith goes a long way toward establishing a distinctive form of Straussian liberalism.
"The demonization of Leo Strauss, in short, is one of the most dismal signs of the times. The shamelessness and baseness of much of what has been written about him is redolent of the propaganda of the 1930s, Auden's 'low, dishonest decade.' That is why Reading Leo Strauss, a sober new study by Yale professor Steven Smith, feels so heartening. By returning to the source and examining what Strauss actually wrote, Mr. Smith lets the breeze of reason into the feverish sickroom of ideology. He portrays a Strauss who cherished democracy as the best bulwark against tyranny, and who valued intellectual honesty above all. By the time Mr. Smith is done, nothing is left of the Strauss caricature except the ignorance and malice that fathered it."--Adam Kirsch, New York Sun
"If all those writers hadn't misunderstood [Leo Strauss], Steven Smith wouldn't have been incited to write his engaging and thorough book. It differs sharply from the most famous book so far produced by a Straussian, the late Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind. . . . But Smith and Bloom have three things in common: They can be read by people without training in philosophy, they develop great themes, and they are nourished by an urgent need to be heard."--Robert Fulford, National Post (Canada)
“Steven B. Smith’s admirably lucid, meticulously argued book, persuasively sets the record straight on Strauss’s political views and on what his writing is really about.”—Robert Alter, New York Times Book Review
"Steven B. Smith's book is a response to Strauss's critics, and it far surpasses previous efforts in clarity, rigor, and judiciousness. Smith
is not an acolyte propagating the true faith; he is an admirer who wishes to persuade his readers of Strauss's intellectual importance.
This balance between sympathy and critical distance, lamentably rare in studies of Strauss, contributes to making this book our best
introduction to the complex and challenging ideas of this divisive figure."--Damon Linker, New Republic
Introduction: Why Strauss, Why Now?
Part One: Jerusalem
1. How Jewish Was Leo Strauss?
Part Two: Athens
4. Leo Strauss's Platonic Liberalism
Index
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