Leo Strauss on Democracy, Technology, and Liberal Education

204 Pages·2021·1.609 MB·English

by  Timothy W Burns

Leo Strauss
ON MODERN DEMOCRACY, TECHNOLOGY,
AND LIBERAL EDUCATION
SUNY series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss
——————
Kenneth Hart Green, editor
Leo Strauss
ON MODERN DEMOCRACY, TECHNOLOGY,
AND LIBERAL EDUCATION
Timothy W. Burns
Cover image of the Churchill funeral; used by permission of British Pathé.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system
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permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Burns, Timothy W., author.
Title: Leo Strauss on modern democracy, technology, and liberal education /
Timothy W. Burns.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Series:
SUNY series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438486130 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438486154
(ebook)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory of my parents, Tom and Liz Burns

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter One Democracy and Liberal Education 17
Chapter Two An Aristocracy within a Democracy:
“Liberal Education and Responsibility” 37
Chapter Three “German Nihilism” 73
Chapter Four “The Liberalism of Classical Political Philosophy” 115
Chapter Five Concluding Reflections on Moral-Political
Reasoning in Contemporary Liberal Democracy 165
Index 187

Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank Peter Ahrensdorf, Thomas L. Pangle, and Devin Stauffer
for their very valuable comments on an earlier draft of this study.
I’d also wish to thank Brill Verlag for permission to republish sections
of chapter 4 of this study, which originally appeared as “Leo Strauss’ ‘The
Liberalism of Classical Political Philosophy,’ ” in Brill’s Companion to Leo
Strauss’ Writings on Classical Political Thought (Brill Academic Publishing,
2015), and British Pathé for permission to use the image from Churchill’s
funeral that appears on the cover. Finally, I’d like to thank the Roman and
Littlefield Publishing Group for permission to republish sections of chapters
1 and 2, which appeared in chapter 25 of Democracy and the History of
Political Thought (2021).
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