Leo Strauss Add a review

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.

Strauss's scholarship ranges from studies of Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon to examinations of Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophical traditions, particularly Al-Farabi and Maimonides. Central to his writings is the tension between reason and revelation, the nature of political prudence, and the relationship between philosophy and political authority. His methodological emphasis on close textual reading, the pedagogical value of classical texts, and the critique of modernity formed the basis of what came to be known as "Straussian" approaches to political theory.

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, and 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.