Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Natural Philosophizing (Suny the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss)

Among the political philosophers of the twentieth century, Leo Strauss is usually singled out for his attempt to revitalize the ancient approach to counter the relativism of both historicism and positivism. It is less commonly underscored, however, that the cornerstone of this attempt is the recovery of the question of "nature," which he regarded as inseparable from genuine philosophy since its inception in ancient Greece. Leo Strauss and the Recovery of "Natural Philosophizing" addresses such a theme, focusing on the theoretical presuppositions that Strauss found at the basis of the acquired inability to raise the question of nature. Prominent among these is the encounter between philosophy and revelation, which, due to their conceptual incompatibility, leads to a condition Strauss metaphorically described as a "second, 'unnatural' cave" characterized by insurmountable "prejudices" rather than "appearance and opinion." These, however, are the starting point of genuine philosophy in the Platonic "first, 'natural' cave," which has to be regained, by way of historical deconstruction of the presuppositions of the second cave, if the "natural philosophizing" embodied by Socratic dialectics is to be reactivated. Contents Abbreviations Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction “What Is Nature?” Leo Strauss and Socrates’s Turn to logoi I II III IV Chapter I Leo Strauss, Carl Schmitt, and the Search for the “Order of Human Things” I II III Chapter II Ancient Liberalism vs. Modern Liberalism I II III IV Chapter III The “Second Cave” and Historical Consciousness in the Correspondence of Leo Strauss and Gerhard Krüger I II III IV Chapter IV Natural Right in Strauss and Krüger’s Exchange Chapter V Strauss and the “Politicization of Philosophy” I II III IV V VI Chapter VI The “Pit beneath the Cave” and the Problem of Natural Right What Is Natural Right According to Strauss? The Role of Natural Right in Strauss’s Political Thought Natural Law, Natural Right, Natural Rights Strauss’s Criticism of Legal Positivism Strauss’s Criticism of Modern Natural Rights Is Natural Right an Essentially “Political” Right? The Pit beneath the Cave and the Natural Cave “Religious Situation of the Present” “The Intellectual Situation of the Present” Introduction to Philosophy and Law “How to Study Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise” Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index of Names