Leo Strauss, education, and political thought

217 Pages·2011·1.282 MB·English

by  J. G. York, Michael A. Peters, Shadia B. Drury, Jon Fennell, Tim McDonough, Heinrich Meier, Neil G. Robertson, Timothy L. Simpson, J.G York, Catherine H. Zuckert, Michael Zuckert

Leo Strauss,
Education, and
Political Thought
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LeoS trauss,
Educatiaonnd,
PolitTihcoaulg ht
Editbeyd
JG..Y orakn dM ichaelP eAt.e rs
Madiso• Tne aneck
FairleDiigchk insUonni versPirteys s
PublishedbyFairleighDickinsonUniversityPress
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Thechaptertitled‘‘WhyLeoStrauss?:FourAnswersandOneConsideration
concerningtheUsesandDisadvantagesoftheSchoolforthePhilosophicalLife’’
copyright(cid:2)2011byHeinrichMeier
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Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction:LeoStrauss:ReadingbetweentheLines 9
MichaelA.Peters andJ.G.York
WhyLeoStrauss?:FourAnswersandOneConsideration
concerningtheUses andDisadvantagesoftheSchoolforthe
PhilosophicalLife 23
HeinrichMeier
‘‘TheSecondCave’’:LeoStraussandthePossibilityof
EducationintheContemporaryWorld 34
NeilG.Robertson
Strauss’sRightsPedagogy 52
Tim McDonough
Strauss’sNew ReadingofPlato 74
Catherine H.Zuckert
WhyLeoStraussIsNotanAristotelian:AnExploratory
Study 110
MichaelP.Zuckert
‘‘DoNoHarm’’:LeoStraussandtheLimitsofRemedial
Politics 137
TimothyL.SimpsonandJonFennell
TamingthePowerElite 162
ShadiaB.Drury
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6 CONTENTS
LeoStraussand theNeoconservativeCritiqueoftheLiberal
University:Postmodernism,Relativism,andtheCultureWars 181
MichaelA.Peters
NotesonContributors 211
Index 215
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Acknowledgments
T
HEEDITORSWOULDLIKETOACKNOWLEDGEANDTHANKTHEFOL-
lowing people: Harry Keyishian, Director, Fairleigh Dickinson Uni-
versityPressforhissupportofthisproject;ChristineRetz,Managing
Editor, Associated University Presses for her guidance through the
production process; Tim Simpson and Jon Fennell for joining us on
theStrausssymposiumattheannualconferenceoftheAmericanEd-
ucational Studies Association in 2009. A special thanks to Stephen
Lange, Assistant Professor of Government, Morehead State Univer-
sity who acted as discussant and made many valuable comments on
thepaperspresented.
Finally, we would like to thank our contributors for their forbear-
ance. This has been a long process and all contributors have been pa-
tientinwaitingforthiscollectiontocometofruition.
Michael A. Peters would like to thank the members of his Masters
class in Political Economy of Education in 2005 at the University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and especially J.G. York for originally
supporting the concept of such a collection. J.G. York would like to
thank Michael A. Peters for the opportunity and the invaluable ex-
periencesgainedby collaboratingonthiscollection.
PortionsoftheIntroduction appearcourtesyofthepublisherTay-
lor & Francis, originally appearing as J. G. York (2008) ‘‘Neoconser-
vatism and Leo Strauss: the place of a liberal education.’’ Critical
StudiesinEducation49(1):67–80.
Portionsoftheessay‘‘Strauss’sRightsPedagogy’’appearcourtesy
of the publisher Taylor& Francis, originally appearing as Tim Mc-
Donough(2008)‘‘Strauss’sRightsPedagogy.’’CriticalStudiesinEd-
ucation49(1):81–98.
Portions of the essay ‘‘Do No Harm’’ appear courtesy of the pub-
lisher Taylor & Francis, originally appearing as Jon M. Fennell and
Timothy L. Simpson (2008) ‘Leo Strauss: Education and the Body
Politic.’CriticalStudiesinEducation49 (1):49–65.
The essay ‘‘Leo Strauss and the Neoconservative Critique’’ is re-
7
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8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
printed here courtesy of the publisher Taylor & Francis, originally
appearingasMichaelA.Peters(2008)‘‘LeoStraussandtheneocon-
servative critique of the liberal university: Postmodernism, relativ-
ism and the culture wars.’’ Critical Studies in Education 49 (1):
11–32.
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Leo Strauss: Reading between the Lines
Michael A. Peters and J. G. York
‘’Anexotericbookcontainsthentwoteachings:apopularteach-
ing of an edifying character, which is in the foreground; and a
philosophic teaching concerning the most important subject,
whichisindicatedonlybetweenthelines.’’
—LeoStrauss,PersecutionandtheArtofWriting
‘‘Graduallyithasbecomecleartomewhateverygreatphilosophy
sofarhasbeen:namely,thepersonalconfessionofitsauthorand
a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir; also that the
moral(orimmoral)intentionsineveryphilosophyconstitutedthe
realgermoflifefromwhichthewholeplanthadgrown.’’
—FriedrichNietzsche,BeyondGoodandEvil
L
EO STRAUSS’S BIOGRAPHY IS UNDOUBTEDLY CRUCIAL TO UNDER-
standingboththemanandhiswork.Strausswas raisedasaJew,and,
while he was a student in Paris in the early 1930s, he studied both
medievalJewishandIslamicthought,laterwritingonMosesbenMai-
monides and Abu Al-Nasr Al-Farabi and going on to formulate his
notion of esoteric teaching. Strauss wrote on a variety of Jewish top-
ics, including most famously Baruch Spinoza’s Critique of Religion
and his thesis on F. H. Jacobi (‘‘The Problem of Knowledge in F. H.
Jacobi’s Philosophical Teaching’’). He also offered commentaries on
Zionism, Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, and Franz Rosenz-
weig,amongother relatedtopics.
Perhaps of greatest significance was the Judaic influence on his
statement of the ‘‘theological-political problem’’ (and tensions be-
tween philosophy and the city) that expressed a personal conflict he
felt between the wisdom of premodern Abrahamic religion (specifi-
cally Judaism) and the rationality of Socratic philosophy.1 Indeed,
Kenneth Hart Green argues that Strauss’s ‘‘return to Maimonides’’
andpremodernJudaismprovidedStrausswitharesponsetothecrisis
9
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