Leo Strauss's Defense of the Philosophic Life: Reading "What Is Political Philosophy?''

230 Pages·2013·1.445 MB·English

by  Rafael Major

Leo Strauss’s Defense
of the Philosophic Life

Leo Strauss’s Defense
of the Philosophic Life
Reading “What Is Political Philosophy?”
edited by rafael major
the university of chicago press chicago and london
rafael major is the director of faculty development at the Jack Miller Center for Teaching
America’s Founding Principles and History and teaches at Ursinus College.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2013 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2013.
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-92420-5 (cloth)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-92421-2 (paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-92423-6 (e-book)
isbn-10: 0-226-92420-3 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-92421-1 (paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-92423-8 (e-book)
Elements of the introduction and chapters 1, 3–4, and 6–8 in this volume appeared in
Perspectives on Political Science 39, no. 2 (April–June 2010), published by Taylor and
Francis Group.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leo Strauss’s defense of the philosophic life : reading “What is political philosophy?” /
edited by Rafael Major.
pages ; cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-226-92420-5 (cloth : alkaline paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-92420-3 (cloth : alkaline paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-92421-2 (paperback : alkaline paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-92421-1 (paperback : alkaline paper)
[etc.]
1. Strauss, Leo. What is political philosophy? 2. Political science—Philosophy.
I. Major, Rafael.
jc251.s8l456 2013
320.01—dc23 2012020623
a This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Contents
introduction Thinking Through Strauss’s Legacy 1
Rafael Major
chapter 1. Reading “What Is Political Philosophy?” 22
Nasser Behnegar
chapter 2. “Political Philosophy and History” 43
Catherine Zuckert
chapter 3. Leo Strauss’s “On Classical Political Philosophy” 65
Nathan Tarcov
chapter 4. Philosophic Politics and Theology:
Strauss’s “Restatement” 80
Christopher Nadon
chapter 5. How Strauss Read Farabi’s Summary of
Plato’s “Laws” 98
Daniel Tanguay
chapter 6. Strauss on Maimonides’s Secretive Political Science 116
Joshua Parens
chapter 7. Leo Strauss’s “On the Basis of Hobbes’s
Political Philosophy” 137
Devin Stauffer
chapter 8. Strauss on Locke and the Law of Nature 153
Michael Zuckert
chapter 9. Fishing for Philosophers: Strauss’s “Restatement” on the
Art of Writing 173
David Janssens
chapter 10. “Kurt Riezler: 1882–1955” and the “Problem” of
Political Philosophy 191
Susan Meld Shell
List of Contributors 215
Index 219
introduction
Thinking Through Strauss’s Legacy
Rafael Major
sine ira et studio — Tacitus, The History 1.1
The year 2009 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of
What Is Political Philosophy? and Other Studies. The book is a collec-
tion of previously published essays and selected book reviews composed
in the 1940s and 1950s by an American political scientist, and its continued
publication would defy explanation for most readers, if not for the reputa-
tion and influence of its author: Leo Strauss. The teaching and thought of
Strauss have been the subject of speculation and controversy since even
before his death in 1973.1 But why would there be widespread controversy
surrounding a scholar who focused mainly on interpretations of classi-
cal and medieval political philosophy? The continuing interest in Strauss
is sustained in part by the large number of active academics who were
his contemporaries—if only as graduate students in the 1960s and early
1970s—but this does not explain why Strauss in particular is singled out
from this period for so much praise and blame. His persistent notoriety
among contemporary political scientists is puzzling. Before the enigmatic
reputation of Leo Strauss can be addressed, however, readers must begin
by attempting to understand his writings. The volume to follow is the first
systematic textual study that seeks to understand a single work of Strauss
on its own terms.
What Is Political Philosophy? is perhaps the best introduction to the
thought of Leo Strauss because it contains extended reflections on all the
major themes of his life’s work. As the title indicates, the book as a whole
is a bold attempt to describe a distinctive approach to the study of politics.
For Strauss, the term “philosophy” in the expression “political philosophy”
2 rafael major
indicates the “manner of treatment” of political phenomena (Strauss
1959, 10).2 The attempt to gain philosophical clarity about the “subject
matter” of politics is not unique to our time, however, and this forces us to
devote at least our initial attention to understanding the recorded history
of political philosophy. Readers approaching Strauss for the first time will
be struck by his repetitive concern for the literary character of philosophic
texts. His focus on “the art of writing,” or an author’s “manner” or “mode
of expression,” is sometimes so pronounced that it seems to be more im-
portant than a particular author’s explicit teaching (e.g., 206, 265, 274, 285,
303). This attention to “how” an author expresses an argument, alongside
the usual concern for “what” is being argued, can be peculiar. Consider-
ations of this type are made every day by concerned citizens discussing
the discrepancy between the speeches and actions of living politicians, for
example, but it is unusual to speak this way about written texts. Strauss’s
procedure is made even more unusual when it leads to novel conclusions
about works whose meaning has been authoritatively established and an-
thologized through centuries of respected scholarship. This is exactly how
Strauss does proceed, however, and he frequently writes with confidence
on the difference between an author’s teaching or his purpose versus the
“roots” of his thought (290).3 In order to justify this approach, he addresses
the historical and philosophical obstacles that have prevented others from
appreciating the decisively literary character of older texts (chaps. 1–2).
He goes to great lengths to reinterpret the ancient history of political
thought (chaps. 3–4) and purports to demonstrate how that thought was
deliberately adapted (chaps. 5–6) or abandoned (chaps. 7–8) in a series of
self-conscious and epoch-making choices of later writers (e.g., 272, 288).
All of this is complicated by the claim that political philosophers in very
different epochs share a common and urgent concern with perennial hu-
man longings and demands.4 This combination of unconventional consid-
erations is what gives his analysis of the history of political philosophy its
unique flavor and the label “Straussian.”
The introductory character of What Is Political Philosophy? is not the
entire story, however, as several passages appear to go beyond historical
analysis. Just beneath the surface, so to speak, there is a kind of “Socratic
method” that is outwardly preoccupied with sharpening issues and honing
questions but that is simultaneously teaching. This didactic character of
the book must also be addressed, because close attention to the collected
commentaries draws readers to ponder Strauss’s personal view. His his-
torical efforts to recover the thought of the past appear to be riddled with
introduction 3
subtle assertion. These commentaries—and book reviews—draw readers
to attempt the obvious: to read Strauss in the meticulous way he read oth-
ers. After introducing several issues surrounding the philosophical treat-
ment of political life, for example, he approaches the same issues from a
different angle:
From this point of view the adjective “political” in the expression “political
philosophy” designates not so much a subject matter as a manner of treatment;
from this point of view, I say, “political philosophy” means primarily not the
philosophic treatment of politics, but the political, or popular, treatment of phi-
losophy, or the political introduction to philosophy. (93–94)
If we take him at his word, the introductory question “what is political
philosophy?” is also an introduction to the life of philosophy. The initial
attempt to recover the history of political philosophy is somehow trans-
formed into the question of the possibility of philosophy tout court. While
attempting to define “political philosophy” it becomes more and more ur-
gent to assess what we mean—and what we hope to gain—by combining
the two terms. From this “point of view,” the book What Is Political Philos-
ophy? is nothing less than an articulation and defense of Strauss’s overall
philosophic approach.5 Precisely because the book has this foundational
or argumentative character, the attempt to understand it requires a careful
reading of each of its chapters on its own terms. All of the scholars in this
volume were chosen, not for any particular view of Strauss’s achievement
and influence, but because of their expertise in the subject matter of their
assigned section. Each contributor interprets Strauss’s contribution to a
specific aspect of the history of political philosophy, but the combined at-
tempt to deal with What Is Political Philosophy? as a whole will also offer
an assessment of Leo Strauss as a thinker in his own right. Understanding
his effort to recover the history of political philosophy requires that we
consider whether he was a philosophic thinker himself.
The foregoing would be a sufficient introduction to this volume, but
approaching What Is Political Philosophy? on its own terms is complicated
by the character of Strauss’s reputation. The persistent scholarly interest
in his writings is shadowed and partly fueled by a swirl of controversy
surrounding the man himself. New readers almost always approach his
works with premade conclusions. This is as true for those who have been
led to believe that Strauss has a great deal to teach them as for those who
have been warned of his unorthodox scholarship and zealous following.