Leo Strauss

History of Political Philosophy scholar (1899-1973)

Person · Open Library

Born: 1899
Died: 1973
Works: 166

Top works

Gesammelte Schriften
Cabale et philosophie
Leo Strauss, judaïsme et philosophie
Nihilisme et politique
Socrates and Aristophanes

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Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: Germany
Active from: 1864-06-11
Active to: 1949-09-08

classicalcomposergermangerman composerliedopera

Discography

Discogs Stream

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Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 64
Total plays: 808

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Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Random Forests
· 2001 · cited 111,418x
The ERA5 global reanalysis
· 2020 · cited 22,689x
Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
· 2020 · cited 15,341x
Astropy: A community Python package for astronomy
· 2013 · cited 13,128x
Bagging predictors
· 1996 · cited 13,099x

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Quotes

“All political action aims at either preservation or change. When desiring to preserve, we wish to prevent a change for the worse; when desiring to change, we wish to bring about something better. All political action is then guided by some thought of better or worse.”
“No bloody or unbloody change of society can eradicate the evil in man: as long as there will be men, there will be malice, envy and hatred, and hence there cannot be a society which does not have to employ coercive restraint.”
“The emancipation of the scholars and scientists from philosophy is according to [Nietzsche] only a part of the democratic movement, i.e. of the emancipation of the low from subordination to the high. … The plebeian character of the contemporary scholar or scientist is due to the fact that he has no reverence for himself.”
“We are confronted with the incompatible claims of Jerusalem and Athens to our allegiance. We are open to both and willing to listen to each. We ourselves are not wise but we wish to become wise. We are seekers for wisdom, philo-sophoi.”
“The Jewish people and their fate are the living witness for the absence of redemption. This, one could say, is the meaning of the chosen people; the Jews are chosen to prove the absence of redemption.”
“The purpose of Plato, or of Aristotle, as Fārābī conceived of it, is sufficiently revealed in this seemingly conventional praise of philosophy.”

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Key facts

Born: ( 1899-09-20 ) September 20, 1899, Kirchhain , Regierungsbezirk Kassel , Province of Hesse-Nassau , Kingdom of Prussia , German Empire
Died: October 18, 1973 (1973-10-18) (aged 74), Annapolis, Maryland , U.S.
Spouse: Miriam Bernsohn Strauss
Awards: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Education: University of Marburg University of Hamburg ( PhD ) University of Freiburg
Thesis: On the Problem of Knowledge in the Philosophical Doctrine of F. H. Jacobi (1921)
Doctoral advisor: Ernst Cassirer
Era: 20th-century philosophy
Region: Western philosophy
School or tradition: Classical political rationalism Straussian hermeneutics
Institutions: Higher Institute for Jewish Studies Columbia University University of Cambridge The New School Hamilton College University of Chicago Claremont McKenna College St. John's College
Doctoral students: Seth Benardete Allan Bloom Christopher Bruell Werner Dannhauser Harry Jaffa Ralph Lerner Muhsin Mahdi Stanley Rosen
Notable students: George Anastaplo Walter Berns Joseph Cropsey Murray Dry Thomas Pangle Herbert Storing Catherine Zuckert Michael Zuckert
Main interests: Political philosophy History of philosophy (especially Greek , Islamic , Jewish and continental philosophy ) Philosophy of religion
Notable works: Persecution and the Art of Writing Thoughts on Machiavelli History of Political Philosophy

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Wikidata facts

Image: Leo Strauss USA 1939.jpg

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date of birth: 1899-09-20
date of death: 1973-10-18
name in native language: Leo Strauss
Commons category: Leo Strauss

Sources (3)

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~40 min read

Article

Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was a German-American political philosopher and historian of philosophy whose work greatly influenced twentieth-century political theory in the United States and the study of classical political thought. He is known best for his interpretation of ancient and medieval philosophy, his account of classical natural right, and his claim that philosophers often wrote esoterically, presenting different teachings to general and specialist readers. Strauss argued that the modern turn in philosophy, beginning with Niccolò Machiavelli and culminating in historicism and relativism, marked a decisive break with the classical understanding of politics and the good life. His work sought to recover the questions and methods of ancient political philosophy as a corrective to the perceived crisis of modern thought.

Born in Germany to Jewish parents, he emigrated to the United States in 1937, going on to hold positions at the New School for Social Research and later at the University of Chicago, where he taught from 1949 to 1969. His seminars shaped several generations of political theorists, many of whom became influential scholars in their own right at major American universities. Strauss's students and interlocutors played significant roles in the development of political philosophy in the postwar United States, particularly in the neoconservative movement; his ideas have been taken up and debated within fields including political theory, classics, intellectual history, and religious studies. His major works include Natural Right and History (1953), Persecution and the Art of Writing (1952), The City and Man (1964), and On Tyranny (1948). Strauss's work has also been the subject of debate, including disputes over his interpretations of ancient texts and discussions of the political influence of some of his students, though these issues remain contested within academic scholarship.