Philosophy, History, and Tyranny: Reexamining the Debate Between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojeve

382 Pages·2016·1.34 MB·English

by  Timothy W. Burns

PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY, AND TYRANNY
SUNY series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss
Kenneth Hart Green, editor
PHILOSOPHY,
HISTORY,
AND
TYRANNY
Reexamining the Debate between
Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève
EDITED BY
Timothy W. Burns and Bryan-Paul Frost
Cover image of Xenophon from bigstock.com
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2016 State University of New York
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Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Burns, Timothy, 1958- editor
Title: Philosophy, history, and tyranny : reexamining the debate between Leo
Strauss and Alexandre Kojeve / edited by Timothy W. Burns and Bryan-Paul
Frost.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2016. | Series:
Suny series in the thought and legacy of Leo Strauss | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016005970 | ISBN 9781438462097 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Strauss, Leo. | Strauss, Leo. On tyranny. | Xenophon. Hieron.
| Kojève, Alexandre, 1902-1968. | Kojève, Alexandre, 1902-1968. Tyrannie
et sagesse. | Political science—Philosophy. | Despotism. | Fukuyama,
Francis. End of history. | History—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC B945.S84 P48 2016 | DDC 321.9—dc23 LC record available
at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016005970
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Timothy W. Burns and Bryan-Paul Frost
1. The Place of the Strauss-Kojève Debate in the Work
of Leo Strauss 15
Timothy W. Burns
2. The Philosophic Background of Alexandre Kojève’s
“Tyranny and Wisdom” 51
Murray S. Y. Bessette
3. The Place of the Bible in the Strauss-Kojève Debate 83
Daniel E. Burns
4. Leo Strauss’s Decisive Reply to Alexandre Kojève 119
Nasser Behnegar
5. Who Won the Strauss-Kojève Debate? The Case for
Alexandre Kojève in His Dispute with Leo Strauss 157
Bryan-Paul Frost
v
vi Contents
6. The Epistolary Exchange between Leo Strauss and
Alexandre Kojève 197
Mark J. Lutz
7. Kojève’s Hegel, Hegel’s Hegel, and Strauss’s Hegel:
A Middle Range Approach to the Debate about
Tyranny and Totalitarianism 219
Waller R. Newell
8. History, Tyranny, and the Presuppositions of Philosophy:
Strauss, Kojève, and Heidegger in Dialogue 251
Richard L. Velkley
9. The Notion of an End of History: Philosophic Origins
and Recent Applications 265
James H. Nichols, Jr.
Appendix A: Critical Edition of Alexandre Kojève,
“Tyrannie et sagesse” 287
Emmanuel Patard
Appendix B: “Tyranny and Wisdom” 291
Alexandre Kojève
Contributors 359
Index 365
Acknowledgments
The editors would like to thank Perry Cartwright and the Uni-
versity of Chicago Press for kindly giving us permission to
republish the English translation of Alexandre Kojève’s “Tyranny
and Wisdom” (in Leo Strauss, On Tyranny, eds. and trans. Victor
Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth [Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2013], 135–176). Jordan Kellman, dean of the College of
Liberal Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, graciously
defrayed the costs of securing these permission rights. Nina Kous-
netzoff willingly allowed the State University of New York Press and
Emmanuel Patard to publish in English translation material from
the Fonds Kojève at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Kenneth
Hart Green, editor of the State University of New York Press series
in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss, encouraged us to include
the present volume in this series, and Michael Rinella, senior acquisi-
tions editor at the State University of New York Press, supported the
project from the beginning by giving the editors an advance contract.
The editors gratefully acknowledge the efforts of the aforementioned
individuals, as well as the authors in this volume, for contributing
to this project. It is a pleasure to know that interest in the Strauss-
Kojève debate remains vibrant, and that such a diverse group of per-
sons was willing to help to bring this edited volume to completion.
vii

Introduction
Timothy W. Burns and Bryan-Paul Frost
The years 2013–2014 marked several anniversaries in respect to
the debate between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève in the
former’s On Tyranny.1 These include the sixtieth anniversary of the
1. Leo Strauss’s On Tyranny was originally published in English in 1948 by Politi-
cal Science Classics (New York), with a forward by the New School’s Alvin
Johnson. A French translation, De la tyrannie, which included Kojève’s “Tyr-
anny and Wisdom,” first appeared in 1954 (Paris: Gallimard). A second Ameri-
can edition of On Tyranny, edited by Allan Bloom and including a translation
of Kojève’s “Tyranny and Wisdom,” appeared in 1963 (New York: Free Press
of Glencoe). On Tyranny was republished, in a revised and expanded edition,
including the Strauss-Kojève correspondence, in English in 1991, edited by
Victor Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth (New York: Free Press). (A French
edition of this revised and expanded edition appeared in 1997, published by
Gallimard.) A second edition of the revised and expanded edition was pub-
lished in 2000 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press); it “restore[d] the con-
cluding paragraph of Strauss’s ‘Restatement’” and corrected some errors in the
text (“Preface to the University of Chicago Edition,” viii). A final third and
“corrected and expanded edition” was published in 2013 (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press) that included “an omitted paragraph” on page 193 (“Preface
to the Corrected and Expanded Edition,” viii). The contributors to this volume
have used a variety of editions, depending on their pedagogical needs and the
character of their articles.
1