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Ancients and Moderns: Essays on the Tradition of Political Philosophy in Honor of Leo Strauss

di Joseph Cropsey

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Ancients and Moderns - but where are the Medievals?, August 24, 2006

This book, first published in 1964, is very difficult, if not impossible, to find. And then the price one must pay is absurd. I suspect, given the notoriety/popularity of Leo Strauss (LS), that the reason it was never republished is that too many contributers would either change or withdraw their contributions.

In any case, the contents and full title are as follows:

Ancients and Moderns: Essays on the Tradition of Political Philosophy in Honor of Leo Strauss

Edited by Joseph Cropsey

Leo Strauss on his Sixty-fifth Birthday p. v

Preface by Joseph Cropsey p. vii

I Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus by Seth Benardete p. 1

II Human Being and Citizen: A Beginning to the Study of Plato's Apology of Socrates by George Anastaplo p. 16

III Aristotle, An Introduction by Jacob Klein p. 50

IV Aristotle's Poetics by Laurence Berns p. 70

V Two Horses and a Charioteer by Peter H. Von Blanckenhagen p. 88

VI The Emperor Julian and His Art of Writing by Alexandre Kojeve p. 95

VII Averroes on Divine Law and Human Wisdom by Muhsin Mahdi p. 114

VII Natural Law in Albo's Book of Roots by Ralph Lerner p. 132

IX Bastards and Usurpers: Shakespeare's King John by Howard P. White p. 148

X Grimmelshausen's Laughter by Hans Speier p. 177

XI Hobbes and the Transition to Modernity by Joseph Cropsey p. 213

XII An Outline of Gulliver's Travels by Allan Bloom p. 238

XIII Montesquieu and the Classics: Republican Government in the Spirit of the Laws by David Lowenthal p. 258

XIV Mill's On Liberty by Hillail Gildin p. 288

XV Political Philosophy and the Search for Truth by Henry M. Magid p. 304

The Writings of Leo Strauss p. 317

Index p. 323

What really first shocked me in this collection is the absence of al-Farabi and Maimonides. While the notion of esoteric writing in the ancients still meets with stout opposition, it is generally accepted among students of Islamic and Jewish Philosophy. Now, any philosopher, in order to be heard, in order for his works to endure, will make concessions to some special form of ignorance. - I mean to the ignorance that is typical of his time. (Those that don't do this end up like our poor Epicurus; author of 300 books, of which today we only have some scraps.) For instance, LS himself makes a 'concession' in writing in a manner that covers over the profound differences between philosophers and their 'exceptional' readers (i.e., he allows these readers to believe, thanks to the imposition of a method -esoteric reading- that they are now reading [and thinking] as philosophers do). Of course, LS never denies the difference between philosophers and their methodologically conjured imitators - he just allows his readers to forget it. Now, I think, LS had learned the difference between the three partners (philosopher, exception, herd) in that ménage à trois we call Humanity in Farabi ('Book of Letters') and also (probably) in Averroes. He almost certainly learned of the importance of method in the 'Attainment of Happiness' by Farabi.

Actually, I have to confess that more and more I am being won over to the notion that the genuine center of LS' thought is neither Plato nor Xenophon (or, I hasten to add for the cynics out there, not even Nietzsche) but rather Farabi. The 'Freedom to Philosophize' is an entirely different issue in the shadow of universal medieval monotheism (and indeed, its avatar, modern universal ideology) than it ever was in the shadows of the Agora. It was Farabi that first realized that we were no longer living in what LS refers to as the 'first cave' (i.e., the human world before philosophy began remaking it). Farabi's understanding, as it came to be incorporated in Averroes, became the fuse that led to the explosion of European Enlightenment. It was Farabi that first notices the possibility, in the 'Book of Letters' for instance, of a sort of 'detente' between the jurists (i.e., the politically oriented 'exceptions') and the philosophers. ("The jurist resembles the man of practical wisdom.") Every 'detente' is aimed at some third party. We can all see what this becomes in Averroes' 'Decisive Treatise'. The jurists, of course, are the 'politicos' (in the Islamic landscape) that Averroes intends to set against the theologians. It is this turn to the 'politicos' by the medieval philosophers (thanks mainly to the subterranean consequences of Latin Averroism) that leads, albeit indirectly, to our Modernity.

I want to point out that the 'downplaying' we see in LS of the difference between philosopher and his readers is really not very different from what we see in the Medieval Aristotelianism (downplaying here means making philosophy exotericly dependent, in the end, on theology) of Ibn Sina, Maimonides and Aquinas. This is not, given our experience of the myriad unpleasant consequences of Enlightenment, something to be simply deplored. By the term 'downplaying' (concessions to some 'special form of ignorance') I mean, for instance, Ibn Sina's tactical employment of 'neoplatonic' gestures side by side with Aristotelianism. With Maimonides we can also see a thinker making a concession to popular belief in his understanding of prophetology. Maimonides agrees with the falasifa (Islamic philosophers) that prophecy is a 'natural' disposition but quickly adds that God can 'miraculously' choose to withhold it. ...Of course, this is but another of our concessions. So the problem with all genuine philosophers, as I understand it, is not the concessions they make but rather the utility of those concessions - in our time and also in the philosophers time. That there are limits, philosophical limits, to what can and cannot be conceded to theology is demonstrated even by Aquinas in his refusing to say (in the last book of Summa Contra Gentiles) that the Trinity, Incarnation, Sacraments and Resurrection can be philosophically demonstrated.

In fact, even though Aquinas is not, strictly speaking, an esotericist, (in fact, among many 'Straussians' he is an object of contempt) he is also trying to walk a line between philosophy and theology; insofar as he sees that there is a line we can see that he is no mere theologian. Every genuine philosopher walks a line between his time and philosophy. Seeing the concessions they make is one thing, and a relatively easy thing; seeing why they made them, the constraints they were under and what they hoped to achieve with each concession, is entirely another (and far more difficult) matter. It may now be impossible to reconstruct what Aquinas hoped to achieve, btw, because what followed him (in the wake of the disastrous Condemnation of 1277) was not in any real sense Thomism. The 'Via Moderna' is at bottom, I think, but a Latin form of Islamic Kalam (i.e., Speculative Theology). ...But just as we 'enlightened' (and Straussian) moderns do not think any less of (say) Averroes because philosophy (in Islam) was inundated by theology so too we should perhaps consider cutting Thomas similar slack here in the West. It is only because the tactical manner Averroes intended to proceed ('detente' between philosophy and the 'political' jurists) led to us (I mean OUR modern un-philosophical way) that we tend today to think of Averroes as different in kind than Aquinas. ...But this is all merely a result of OUR faith in the 'political'.

You will but rarely find this book up for sale. Your best hope is a college library. The essays by Benardete, Klein, Kojeve and Mahdi are, imho, most worthwhile. If another edition of this book (or an entirely new book) honoring LS (and his understanding of the esotericsm of the philosophers) were to be published I would plead for essays on Farabi and Maimonides. It is also utterly scandalous that there are no essays on Xenophon, Machiavelli and Spinoza in a book honoring the contribution of LS. The strength of the esoteric position LS pioneered lies in its readings of the ancients, medievals and some early modern philosophers. Four stars for this book, five stars for a book revised along the lines just sketched. ( )
  pomonomo2003 | Dec 1, 2006 |
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