Brill's Companion to Leo Strauss' Writings on Classical Political Thought

494 Pages·2015·1.783 MB·English

by  Timothy W. Burns (ed.)

Brill’s Companion to Leo Strauss’ Writings on Classical Political Thought
Brill’s Companions to
Classical Reception
Series Editor
Kyriakos N. Demetriou
VOLUME 4
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bccr
Brill’s Companion to Leo Strauss’
Writings on Classical
Political Thought
Edited by
Timothy W. Burns
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: The cover photos, taken by Hannes Kerber, are of the handwritten manuscript of
Leo Strauss’ “Exoteric Teaching,” dated December, 1939, in the Leo Strauss archives at the University
of Chicago. They are used with permission of Hannes Kerber and permission of Nathan Tarcov,
Literary Executor of the Estate of Leo Strauss.
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities.
For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 2213-1426
isbn 978-90-04-24335-4 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-29983-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Acknowledgement ix
About the Contributors x
Editor’s Introduction
Leo Strauss’ Recovery of Classical Political Philosophy 1
Timothy W. Burns
Part 1
Pre-Socratic Thought
1 On “The Origin of the Idea of Natural Right” in Natural Right
and History 33
Gregory A. McBrayer
2 Reading Thucydides with Leo Strauss 50
Clifford Orwin
3 On Leo Strauss’ “Notes on Lucretius” 76
James H. Nichols, Jr.
Part 2
Classical Political Philosophy
4 Leo Strauss’ “The Liberalism of Classical Political Philosophy” 97
Timothy W. Burns
5 On “Classic Natural Right” in Natural Right and History 128
Devin Stauffer
6 “On Collingwood’s Philosophy of History” and “On a New Interpretation
of Plato’s Political Philosophy” 147
Jonathan F. Culp
vi contents
Part 3
Aristophanes
7 Learning to Love Aristophanes: Reading Aristophanes
with Strauss 169
Christopher Baldwin
Part 4
Xenophon
8 On Leo Strauss’ Presentation of Xenophon’s Political Philosophy in
“The Problem of Socrates” 193
Richard S. Ruderman
9 “Through the Keyhole”: Leo Strauss’ Rediscovery of Classical Political
Philosophy in Xenophon’s Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 213
Richard S. Ruderman
10 A Guide to the Study of Leo Strauss’ On Tyranny 227
Eric Buzzetti
11 Socratic Rhetoric and Political Philosophy: Leo Strauss on Xenophon’s
Symposium 258
Dustin Gish
12 Strauss on the Memorabilia: Xenophon’s Socrates 285
Amy L. Bonnette
13 Strauss on Xenophon’s Anabasis
13a The Difference between Socrates and Xenophon in Leo Strauss’
Account of Xenophon’s Anabasis 305
Devin Stauffer
13b Divine Justice in Strauss’ Anabasis 314
Timothy W. Burns
contents vii
Part 5
Plato
14 Leo Strauss on the Politics of Plato’s Republic 323
Linda R. Rabieh
15 Philosophy and Law: On the Gravest Question in Plato’s Minos 344
Robert Goldberg
16 An Introduction to Strauss’ “An Untitled Lecture on Plato’s
Euthyphron” 361
Wayne Ambler
17 Eristics, Protreptics, and (Dialectics): Strauss on Plato’s
Euthydemos 379
Michael Rosano
18 Strauss on the Apology and Crito 402
John C. Koritansky
19 The Argument and the Action of Plato’s Laws 424
Mark J. Lutz
Part 6
Aristotle
20 Aristotle’s Political Science, Common Sense, and the Socratic
Tradition in The City and Man 443
Susan D. Collins
Index of Proper Names 473
Subject Index 477

Acknowledgement
Chapter nine of this volume, “ ‘Through the Keyhole’: Leo Strauss’ Rediscovery
of Classical Political Philosophy in Xenophon’s Constitution of the Lace­
deamonians,” was originally published in 2014 as chapter ten (pp. 191–201) of
Reorientation: Leo Strauss in the 1930s, Martin D. Yaffe and Richard S. Ruderman,
editors (New York, NY: Palgrave). It is here reproduced with the permission of
Palgrave MacMillan.
About the Contributors
Wayne Ambler
is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Herbst Program of Humanities at
the University of Colorado Boulder. He has written on Aristotle, Xenophon,
and Aristophanes and authored translations of Xenophon’s Anabasis of Cyrus
and Education of Cyrus and of several of Aristophanes plays.
Christopher Baldwin
received his BA from Kenyon College and his PhD from the University of
Toronto. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Southeast
Missouri State University. His previous publications include essays and articles
on Aristophanes, Benjamin Franklin, Nietzsche, Leo Strauss, and Camus. He is
currently writing a book-length study of Nietzsche.
Amy L. Bonnette
is a visiting scholar in the Political Science Department at Boston College. She
has translated Xenophon’s Memorabilia (Cornell University Press, 1994), and
has published essays on Aristophanes as well as Jane Austen. She is currently
completing a new translation of Xenophon’s treatise On Horsemanship, with
an introductory essay.
Timothy W. Burns
is Professor of Political Science at Baylor University. He is author of
Shakespeare’s Political Wisdom, co-author (with Thomas L. Pangle) of
Introduction To Political Philosophy, editor of After History? Francis Fukuyama
and his Critics, editor of Recovering Reason: Essays in Honor of Thomas L.
Pangle, and co-editor (with Bryan-Paul Frost) of Philosophy, History, and
Tyranny: Re­examining the Debate Between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève.
He is translator of Marcellinus’ “Life of Thucydides,” and author of articles on
thinkers from Homer to Nietzsche.
Eric Buzzetti
is Associate Professor and Principal (Chair) of the Liberal Arts College at
Concordia University (Montreal). He specializes in classical political philoso-
phy and is the author of Xenophon the Socratic Prince: The Argument of the
Anabasis of Cyrus (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).