Arthur M. Melzer

This book, ostensibly about a recherche aspect of pre-Enlightenment rhetoric, is in fact a repository of philosophical speculation. While the subject is the use of disguised meaning in historical texts, the various reasons for employing esoteric subterfuge lead to intriguing digressions on such topics as the modern insistence that theory be consistent with practice, the impact of globalization on speculative thought, and the rise of historicism in recent interpretations of the intellectual past. If for nothing else, it rehabilitates Leo Strauss as something more than a political crank. I loved this book!… (altro)