{"product_id":"9780226135878","title":"Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy","description":"Leo Strauss and his alleged political influence regarding the Iraq War have in recent years been the subject of significant media attention, including stories in the \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNew York Times.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e magazine even called him “one of the most influential men in American politics.” With \u003ci\u003eThe Truth about Leo Strauss\u003c\/i\u003e, Michael and Catherine Zuckert challenged the many claims and speculations about this notoriously complex thinker. Now, with \u003ci\u003eLeo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e, they turn their attention to a searching and more comprehensive interpretation of Strauss’s thought as a whole, using the many manifestations of the “problem of political philosophy” as their touchstone.\u003cbr\u003e   For Strauss, political philosophy presented a “problem” to which there have been a variety of solutions proposed over the course of Western history. Strauss’s work, they show, revolved around recovering—and restoring—political philosophy to its original Socratic form. Since positivism and historicism represented two intellectual currents that undermined the possibility of a Socratic political philosophy, the first part of the book is devoted to Strauss’s critique of these two positions. Then, the authors explore Strauss’s interpretation of the history of philosophy and both ancient and modern canonical political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Locke. Strauss’s often-unconventional readings of these philosophers, they argue, pointed to solutions to the problem of political philosophy. Finally, the authors examine Strauss’s thought in the context of the twentieth century, when his chief interlocutors were Schmitt, Husserl, Heidegger, and Nietzsche.\u003cbr\u003e   The most penetrating and capacious treatment of the political philosophy of this complex and often misunderstood thinker, from his early years to his last works, \u003ci\u003eLeo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e reveals Strauss’s writings as an attempt to show that the distinctive characteristics of ancient and modern thought derive from different modes of solving the problem of political philosophy and reveal why he considered the ancient solution both philosophically and politically superior.","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073300513008,"sku":"9780226135878","price":36.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780226135878_p0.jpg?v=1769913944","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780226135878","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}