Reorientation: Leo Strauss in the 1930s (Recovering Political Philosophy)

The first comprehensive effort to examine Strauss's astonishingly wide-ranging writings of the 1930s (some of which have only recently been made available to English-speaking readers, including several herein) with a view to their unifying theme of recovering classical political philosophy. Reorientation: Leo Strauss in the 1930s seeks to explain the 'change in orientation' that Strauss underwent during a decade of personal and political upheaval. Though he began to garner attention in the 1950s, it was in the 1930s that Strauss made a series of fundamental breakthroughs which enabled him to recover, for the first time since the Middle Ages, the genuine meaning of political philosophy. Despite this being a period of marked output and activity for Strauss, his research in this era remains overlooked. This volume is the first to assemble in one place an examination of Strauss' various publications throughout the decade, providing a comprehensive analysis of his work during the period. It includes, for the first time in English, five newly translated writings of Strauss from 1929-37, brought to life with insight from leading scholars in the field Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Editors’ Introduction 16 CHAPTER 1 How Strauss Became Strauss 28 CHAPTER 2 Spinoza’s Critique of Religion: Reading the Low in light of the High* 48 CHAPTER 3 The Light Shed on the Crucial Development of Strauss’s Thought by his Correspondence with Gerhard Krüger 72 CHAPTER 4 Strauss on Hermann Cohen’s “Idealizing” Appropriation of Maimonides as a Platonist 84 CHAPTER 5 Strauss on the Religious and Intellectual Situation of the Present 94 CHAPTER 6 Carl Schmitt and Strauss’s Return to Premodern Philosophy 129 CHAPTER 7 Leo Strauss on the Origins of Hobbes’s Natural Science and Its Relation to the Challenge of Divine Revelation 144 CHAPTER 8 Leo Strauss on Farabi, Maimonides, et al. in the 1930s 170 CHAPTER 9 The Problem of the Enlightenment: Strauss, Jacobi, and the Pantheism Controversy 183 CHAPTER 10 “Through the Keyhole”: Leo Strauss’s Rediscovery of Classical Political Philosophy in Xenophon’s Constitution of t 203 CHAPTER 11 Strauss and Schleiermacher on How to Read Plato: An Introduction to “Exoteric Teaching” 214 APPENDICES: Seven Writings by Leo Strauss 226 Appendices A: Leo Strauss: “Conspectivism” (1929)1 228 Appendices B: Leo Strauss: “Religious Situation of the Present” (1930) 236 Appendices C: Leo Strauss: “The Intellectual Situation of the Present” (1932)1 247 Appendices D: Leo Strauss: “A Lost Writing of Farab?’s” (1936) 264 Appendices E: Leo Strauss: “On Abravanel’s Critique of Monarchy” (1937) 275 Supplementary Note on Archival Materials 277 Editorial Note to Appendices F and G 279 Appendices F: Leo Strauss: Exoteric Teaching (1939) 282 Supplement 1: Early Plan of “Exoteric Teaching” 294 Supplement 2: Later Plan of “Exoteric Teaching” 297 Appendices G: Leo Strauss: Lecture Notes for “Persecution and the Art of Writing” (1939) 299 Notes on Contributors 311 Index 314 Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Editors’ Introduction....Pages 1-12 How Strauss Became Strauss....Pages 13-32 Spinoza’s Critique of Religion: Reading the Low in Light of the High....Pages 33-56 The Light Shed on the Crucial Development of Strauss’s Thought by His Correspondence with Gerhard Krüger....Pages 57-68 Strauss on Hermann Cohen’s “Idealizing” Appropriation of Maimonides as A Platonist....Pages 69-78 Strauss on the Religious and Intellectual Situation of the Present....Pages 79-113 Carl Schmitt and Strauss’s Return to Premodern Philosophy....Pages 115-129 Leo Strauss on the Origins of Hobbes’s Natural Science and Its Relation to the Challenge of Divine Revelation....Pages 131-156 Leo Strauss on Farabi, Maimonides, et al. in the 1930S....Pages 157-169 The Problem of the Enlightenment: Strauss, Jacobi, and the Pantheism Controversy....Pages 171-190 “Through the Keyhole”: Leo Strauss’s Rediscovery of Classical Political Philosophy in Xenophon’s Constitution of the Lacedaemonians....Pages 191-201 Strauss and Schleiermacher on How to Read Plato: An Introduction to “Exoteric Teaching”....Pages 203-214 Back Matter....Pages 215-316 "Reorientation: Leo Strauss in the 1930s seeks to explain the 'change in orientation' that Strauss underwent during a decade of personal and political upheaval. Though he began to garner attention in the 1950s, it was in the 1930s that Strauss made a series of fundamental breakthroughs which enabled him to recover, for the first time since the Middle Ages, the genuine meaning of political philosophy. Despite this being a period of marked output and activity for Strauss, his research in this era remains overlooked. This volume is the first to assemble in one place an examination of Strauss' various publications throughout the decade, providing a comprehensive analysis of his work during the period. It includes, for the first time in English, five newly translated writings of Strauss from 1929-37, brought to life with insight from leading scholars in the field."-- Provided by publisher "Reorientation: Leo Strauss in the 1930s seeks to explain the 'change in orientation' that Strauss underwent during a decade of personal and political upheaval. Though he began to garner attention in the 1950s, it was in the 1930s that Strauss made a series of fundamental breakthroughs which enabled him to recover, for the first time since the Middle Ages, the genuine meaning of political philosophy. Despite this being a period of marked output and activity for Strauss, his research in this era remains overlooked. This volume is the first to assemble in one place an examination of Strauss' various publications throughout the decade, providing a comprehensive analysis of his work during the period. It includes, for the first time in English, five newly translated writings of Strauss from 1929-37, brought to life with insight from leading scholars in the field"--Page 4 de la couverture