Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy

ISBN-13: 9781580465533 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 208 str.

Joshua Parens

Opis

Leo Strauss is known primarily for reviving classical political philosophy. Strauss recovered that great tradition of thought largely lost to the West by beginning his study of classical thought with its teaching on politics rather than its metaphysics. What brought Strauss to this way of reading the classics, however, was a discovery he made as a young political scientist studying the obscure texts of Islamic and Jewish medieval political thought. In this volume, Joshua Parens examines Strauss's investigations of medieval political philosophy, offering interpretations of his writings on the great thinkers of that tradition, including interpretations of his most difficult writings on Alfarabi and Maimonides. In addition Parens explicates Strauss's statements on Christian medieval thought and his argument for rejecting the Scholastic paradigm as a method for interpreting Islamic and Jewish thought. Contrasting Scholasticism with Islamic and Jewish medieval political philosophy, Parens clarifies the theme of Strauss's thought, what Strauss calls the "theologico-political problem," and reveals the significance of medieval political philosophy in the Western tradition.BR> Joshua Parens is professor of philosophy and politics and dean of the Braniff Graduate School at the University of Dallas.

Spis treści

Foreword by Douglas Kries
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
The Comprehensiveness of Political Philosophy in Alfarabi and Maimonides
Law, Prophecy, and Philosopher as King and Outcast
Vipers, Weeds, and Disorder in the Whole
Escaping the Scholastic Paradigm
Spinoza's Scholasticism and Alfarabi's Platonism
The Differing Places of Metaphysics in Alfarabi and Thomas Aquinas
From Political Philosophy to Enlightened Kalam: The 1930s and 1940s
Maimonides's Secretiveness about Political Philosophy: The 1950s
Theoretical Philosophy, Political Philosophy, and Happiness
Maimonides's Guide as a Work of Political Philosophy
Da capo: An Introduction to the Guide
Appendix: A Critique of Pines's "Limitations" Article
Notes
Bibliography
Index