After Leo Strauss: New Directions In Platonic Political Philosophy (suny Series In The Thought And Legacy Of Leo Strauss)

Few thinkers of the twentieth century studied the fundamental questions of ethics and politics, or penetrated further into the philosophical sources of the moral relativism of our times, more deeply than Leo Strauss. After Leo Strauss is not yet another attempt to explicate, critique, or defend Strauss. Instead, it encourages us to look in new directions, and to escape certain aspects of Strauss's powerful influence, in order to revisit classic texts and make our own judgments about what those texts might mean. Tucker Landy proposes a post-Straussian reading of the Platonic dialogues that is non-esoteric yet respectful of their subtle dramatic-pedagogic form and urges us, in a spirit of Socratic humility, to reexamine ancient and modern theories of natural right to seek possible grounds for reconciliation between them. Landy puts forth a Socratic theory of democratic liberalism as an example of such reconciliation. "This book is a breath of fresh air for people like me, who were influenced by Strauss early in their philosophic careers but who refuse to dismiss metaphysics and cosmology, who are wary of the potentially narrowing effects of 'political philosophy, ' and who are open, in their philosophical eros, to the possible truth of revelation and the wisdom of the poets. Tucker Landy gives us a new beginning--a Socrates made young and beautiful."--Peter Kalkavage, author of The Logic of Desire: An Introduction to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. --Provided by publisher.;Introduction: Rethinking Leo Strauss -- Modern Science and Classical Natural Right -- Nietzsche's Plato -- Socrates, the Ideas, and a Non-Esoteric Reading of Plato -- The Limitations of Platonic Dualism -- Socratic Liberalism -- Philosophic Wisdom and Literary Wisdom. Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Chapter 1 Introduction: Rethinking Leo Strauss 10 1. Strauss, Historicism, and the Academy 10 2. Some New Directions 21 3. Overview 26 Chapter 2 Modern Science and Classical Natural Right 34 1. The Role of Analogy in Ancient Physics 41 2. Early Modern Advances in Coherence: The Mechanistic Philosophy 43 3. Disrupting the Progress: Gains and Losses in Intelligibility 46 4. Another Blow to Mechanical Modeling: The Theory of Relativity 47 5. Quantum Nonmechanics 51 6. Explaining and Not Explaining the Law of Entropy 55 7. The Limitations of Modern Physics 57 8. The Socratic Turn from Cosmology and the Foundation of Natural Right 59 Chapter 3 Nietzsche’s Plato 64 1. Nietzsche’s Brand of Reductionism 65 2. Nietzsche’s Reductionist View of Socrates 68 Chapter 4 Socrates, the Ideas, and a Non-Esoteric Reading of Plato 74 1. The Socratic Turn and the Theory of Ideas in the Phaedo 83 2. The Turn from Reductionism in the Phaedrus 92 3. Socrates against the Reductionists: Thrasymachus 96 4. Socrates against the Reductionists: Polus and Callicles 100 5. The Socratic Re-enchantment with the World 102 Chapter 5 The Limitations of Platonic Dualism 104 1. Plato’s Republic–Timaeus–Critias Trilogy 108 2. Aristotle’s Critique of Platonic Physics and Politics 114 3. Machiavelli’s Revolt against Platonic and Christian Pessimism 120 4. The New Science of Nature: Implications for Politics 131 5. Hobbes and the Quest for a New Science of Human Nature 135 6. Economics and Order Arising from Below 141 7. Where Are We Now? 143 Chapter 6 Socratic Liberalism 146 1. The Apology: Socratic Uncertainty and the Socratic Way of Life 148 2. Socrates and the Value of Perplexity 150 3. Uncertainty and Philosophy in the Republic 153 4. Socratic Uncertainty and the Teleology of Aristotle 157 5. The Modern Origins of Democratic Liberalism 160 6. Challenges to Classical Liberalism, Part I: Rousseau 165 7. Challenges to Classical Liberalism, Part II: Nietzsche 169 8. Socratic Liberal Politics 175 9. Socratic Liberal Theory in American Politics 177 Chapter 7 Philosophic Wisdom and Literary Wisdom 182 1. Socrates and Poetry 186 2. Literary Wisdom 193 3. Plato’s Literary Wisdom 198 Notes 204 Bibliography 226 Abbreviations of Works by Leo Strauss 226 Index 232 Publisher Summary : Proposes a post-Straussian reading of Plato to advance a reconciliation of ancient and modern theories of natural right. Few thinkers of the twentieth century studied the fundamental questions of ethics and politics, or penetrated further into the philosophical sources of the moral relativism of our times, more deeply than Leo Strauss. After Leo Strauss is not yet another attempt to explicate, critique, or defend Strauss. Instead, it encourages us to look in new directions, and to escape certain aspects of Strauss's powerful influence, in order to revisit classic texts and make our own judgments about what those texts might mean. Tucker Landy proposes a post-Straussian reading of the Platonic dialogues that is non-esoteric yet respectful of their subtle dramatic-pedagogic form and urges us, in a spirit of Socratic humility, to reexamine ancient and modern theories of natural right to seek possible grounds for reconciliation between them. Landy puts forth a Socratic theory of democratic liberalism as an example of such reconciliation. "This book is a breath of fresh air for people like me, who were influenced by Strauss early in their philosophic careers but who refuse to dismiss metaphysics and cosmology, who are wary of the potentially narrowing effects of 'political philosophy,' and who are open, in their philosophical eros, to the possible truth of revelation and the wisdom of the poets. Tucker Landy gives us a new beginning--a Socrates made young and beautiful." -- Peter Kalkavage, author of The Logic of An Introduction to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Table of Contents Acknowledgments 1. Rethinking Leo Strauss 2. Modern Science and Classical Natural Right 3. Nietzsche's Plato 4. Socrates, the Ideas, and a Non-Esoteric Reading of Plato 5. The Limitations of Platonic Dualism 6. Socratic Liberalism 7. Philosophic Wisdom and Literary Wisdom Notes Bibliography Index Publisher Summary : Proposes a post-Straussian reading of Plato to advance a reconciliation of ancient and modern theories of natural right. Few thinkers of the twentieth century studied the fundamental questions of ethics and politics, or penetrated further into the philosophical sources of the moral relativism of our times, more deeply than Leo Strauss. After Leo Strauss is not yet another attempt to explicate, critique, or defend Strauss. Instead, it encourages us to look in new directions, and to escape certain aspects of Strauss's powerful influence, in order to revisit classic texts and make our own judgments about what those texts might mean. Tucker Landy proposes a post-Straussian reading of the Platonic dialogues that is non-esoteric yet respectful of their subtle dramatic-pedagogic form and urges us, in a spirit of Socratic humility, to reexamine ancient and modern theories of natural right to seek possible grounds for reconciliation between them. Landy puts forth a Socratic theory of democratic liberalism as an example of such reconciliation. "This book is a breath of fresh air for people like me, who were influenced by Strauss early in their philosophic careers but who refuse to dismiss metaphysics and cosmology, who are wary of the potentially narrowing effects of 'political philosophy,' and who are open, in their philosophical eros, to the possible truth of revelation and the wisdom of the poets. Tucker Landy gives us a new beginning--a Socrates made young and beautiful." -- Peter Kalkavage, author of The Logic of Desire: An Introduction to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Few thinkers of the twentieth century studied the fundamental questions of ethics and politics, or penetrated further into the philosophical sources of the moral relativism of our times, more deeply than Leo Strauss. This book is not yet another attempt to explicate, critique, or defend Strauss. Instead, it encourages us to look in new directions, and to escape certain aspects of Strauss’s powerful influence, in order to revisit classic texts and make our own judgments about what those texts might mean. Tucker Landy proposes a post-Straussian reading of the Platonic dialogues that is non-esoteric yet respectful of their subtle dramatic-pedagogic form and urges us, in a spirit of Socratic humility, to reexamine ancient and modern theories of natural right to seek possible grounds for reconciliation between them. Landy puts forth a Socratic theory of democratic liberalism as an example of such reconciliation