Re: Leo Strauss and the Neo-Cons -- Left-Wing Discussion

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Thu 2003-09-04 10:06:43
Author: Redeye
Subject: Re: Leo Strauss and the Neo-Cons
In reply to: ThinkTank 's message, "Leo Strauss and the Neo-Cons" on Thu 2003-09-04 02:32:44

I guess that it boils down to the differences between philosophy in general and politics. Nobody doubts that Plato was a brilliant philosopher; Whitehead remarked that "all of Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato." Very few people take Plato's politics seriously; you can argue that Marx's dictatorship of the proletariat shares with Plato's aristocracy the rule by the elite but for the people, but really nothing beyond that.

It's the same with Strauss, methinks. Philosophically, he is undoubtedly brilliant; halfwits don't become professors at Chicago. I know that at least the University of Chicago at the graduate level teaches philosophy according to his idea of basing the study of philosophy on reading one or two books at a time - i.e. you study Wittgenstein by taking courses on, say, the Philosophical Investigations, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, and the Blue Book, rather than by studying his philosophy in general. Politically, however, Strauss is a borderline crank, who believes in Machiavellian ideas of power politics and keeping the masses happy and ignorant � la The Matrix.

While Strauss himself didn't do much damage, you need to remember than Popper was a liberal who believed in open societies whereas Strauss was a brilliant philosopher with political ideas from the 4th century BC.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]