Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editors' Introduction: The Question of Modernity Meets the Question of Leo Strauss
- Why Leo Strauss? Four Answers and One Consideration concerning the Uses and Disadvantages of the School for the Philosophical Life
- Leo Strauss and the Contemporary Return to Political Philosophy
- Philosophy as the Right Way of Life in Natural Right and History
- The Philosopher's Ancient Clothes: Leo Strauss on Philosophy and Poetry
- Leo Strauss as Erzieher: The Defense of the Philosophical Life or the Defense of Life Against Philosophy?
- Modern Challenges – Platonic Responses: Strauss, Arendt, Voegelin
- Karl Löwith and Leo Strauss on Modernity, Secularization, and Nihilism
- Remarks on the Strauss-Kojève Dialogue and its Presuppositions
- Carl Schmitt and his Critic
- Postmodernism and the Art of Writing: The Importance of Leo Strauss for the 21st Century
- Leo Strauss's Gynaikologia
- Contributors
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Remarks on the Strauss-Kojève Dialogue and its Presuppositions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editors' Introduction: The Question of Modernity Meets the Question of Leo Strauss
- Why Leo Strauss? Four Answers and One Consideration concerning the Uses and Disadvantages of the School for the Philosophical Life
- Leo Strauss and the Contemporary Return to Political Philosophy
- Philosophy as the Right Way of Life in Natural Right and History
- The Philosopher's Ancient Clothes: Leo Strauss on Philosophy and Poetry
- Leo Strauss as Erzieher: The Defense of the Philosophical Life or the Defense of Life Against Philosophy?
- Modern Challenges – Platonic Responses: Strauss, Arendt, Voegelin
- Karl Löwith and Leo Strauss on Modernity, Secularization, and Nihilism
- Remarks on the Strauss-Kojève Dialogue and its Presuppositions
- Carl Schmitt and his Critic
- Postmodernism and the Art of Writing: The Importance of Leo Strauss for the 21st Century
- Leo Strauss's Gynaikologia
- Contributors
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
One of the most prevailing modern prejudices consists of the belief in the superiority of the achievements enabled by the development of modern thought, over all previous forms of thought. This belief has been put today into question: the mortal threats for humanity and its world engendered by technical progress, the doubts about the possibility of universal enlightenment, of universal and perpetual peace, call into question dramatically the self-confidence of Western civilization. The modern project aimed at establishing paradise on earth; however, it may be no intolerable exaggeration to say that in some of its latest attempts at accomplishment, it came not so far from establishing hell on earth. Leaving aside various short-lived attempts to restore traditional positions or to elaborate eclectic syntheses, we notice that this situation prompts many present-day thinkers to try to trace back, through historical studies, the genealogy of modern thought, in order to understand the source and conditions of such a failure.
Alexandre Kojève, the famous commentator of Hegel, still stood for the modern project, the aim of which he called “universal and homogeneous State,” the End-State which is supposed to fulfill the fundamental aspirations of Man, to solve all contradictions and conflicts in human thought and action. Kojève challenged On Tyranny, Leo Strauss's defense and illustration of the classical view of the fundamental problems through a commentary on Xenophon's Hiero.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Modernity and What Has Been LostConsiderations on the Legacy of Leo Strauss, pp. 111 - 124Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2010