Tag: Leo Strauss

Heidegger (right) and Husserl in 1921.

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In my “Notes on Strauss and Husserl,” I discuss the following passage from Leo Strauss’ Natural Right and History:

To grasp the natural world as a world that is radically prescientific or prephilosophic, one has to go back behind the first emergence of science or philosophy. It is not necessary for this purpose to engage in extensive and necessarily hypothetical anthropological studies. The information that classical philosophy supplies about its origins suffices . . . (more…)

Edmund Husserl

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Leo Strauss credited Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology as a critical resource for his project of overthrowing modern political thought and vindicating the ancients. This may come as some surprise to readers of Strauss, given the prominence of his critique of historicism, which applies to Husserl as well. But Strauss’s late essay, “Philosophy as Rigorous Science and Political Philosophy”[1] as well as posthumously published lectures and correspondence reveal significant debts to Husserl.

Husserl was not, moreover, a mere “negative influence” — i.e., someone whose ideas Strauss rejected. Husserl was a “positive influence,” meaning that Strauss accepted and incorporated some of his ideas. (more…)

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1. Knowledge of the Right Use of All Things

To explain what philosophy is, we always have to go back to the beginning. Pythagoras (ca. 570-495 BC) is said to have been confronted by Leon, the tyrant of Philius, who demanded to know if he was wise. He responded that he was not a wise man, but merely a φιλόσοφος (philosophos), a “lover of wisdom”; a practitioner of φιλοσοφία (philosophia). Φίλος (philos) means “love,” and σοφῐ́ᾱ (sophia) means “wisdom.” (more…)

Carl Schmitt, 1888–1985

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The last episode of Counter-Currents Radio featured Greg Johnson reading from and discussing his essay “Reflections on Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political,” as well as answering YOUR QUESTIONS, as always, and it is now available for download and online listening.

Topics discussed include:

The Concept of the Political
A few words on Carl Schmitt (more…)

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On Sunday, May 17, 2020, Counter-Currents Radio did an Ask Me Anything livestream with Greg Johnson and Fróði Midjord. This is a recording. (more…)

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This week Greg Johnson talks to Counter-Currents writer Nicholas Jeelvy (part 1 of 2), (more…)

Alexandre Kojève

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English original here

Poznámka autora: Následuje přepis řeči, kterou jsem v roce 2000 přednesl v Atlantě. Odstranil jsem příliš košaté větné konstrukce, stejně jako občasnou interakci s publikem.

Žijeme v době bohaté na předpovědi konce věků. Loni, na konci roku 1999, oslavovala drtivá většina silvestrovských hýřilů o rok předčasně konec milénia. (more…)

Max Weber

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Part 1 here

The Intellectual Bankruptcy of the Present Age

Not only does Strauss claim that historicism is a healthy reaction to the intellectual bankruptcy of the modern world, in the next section of his essay, he also attributes this bankruptcy to non-historicist causes.

First, Strauss talks about Max Weber’s Learning and Science as Vocation. He specifically objects to Weber’s claim that reason cannot speak about the ultimate aims of life: (more…)

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Part 1 of 2 

Leo Strauss is widely known as a critic of historicism and an advocate of classical philosophy. Historicism holds that philosophical ideas are relative to culture, whereas classical philosophy aims for knowledge of nature, which is not relative to culture. But what is Strauss’s own point of view? Does he base his arguments on historicist or classical philosophical premises? (more…)

Leo Strauss, 1899–1973

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English original here

Poznámka autora:

Následující esej jsem napsal v 90. letech jako doktorand, ne v rámci svých studijních povinností, ale spíš abych si ujasnil své myšlenky ohledně čtení filozofických textů v rámci přípravy k psaní své vlastní doktorské disertační práce. Jen těžko dokážu uvěřit, že jsem míval dostatek volného času na to, abych psal eseje o skoro osmi tisících slovech „do šuplíku,“ ale důkaz máte před sebou. (more…)

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I joined The Daily Shoah Death Panel for a wide-ranging discussion on Leo Strauss, liberalism, and Khantrived Khan Khantroversy, and much more. To listen, click here.

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Leo Strauss, in his 1952 book, Persecution and the Art of Writing, argues that great writers tend to write with multiple levels of meaning. Often writers have an exoteric message to avoid displeasing the king, censors, or fashion of the times. At the same time, they maintain an esoteric message concealed within irony, paradoxes, and even deliberate self-contradiction.  (more…)