Download or read book Leo Strauss on Plato s Protagoras written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-05-20 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A transcript of Leo Strauss’s key seminars on Plato’s Protagoras. This book offers a transcript of Strauss’s seminar on Plato’s Protagoras taught at the University of Chicago in the spring quarter of 1965, edited and introduced by renowned scholar Robert C. Bartlett. These lectures have several important features. Unlike his published writings, they are less dense and more conversational. Additionally, while Strauss regarded himself as a Platonist and published some work on Plato, he published little on individual dialogues. In these lectures Strauss treats many of the great Platonic and Straussian themes: the difference between the Socratic political science or art and the Sophistic political science or art of Protagoras; the character and teachability of virtue, its relation to knowledge, and the relations among the virtues, courage, justice, moderation, and wisdom; the good and the pleasant; frankness and concealment; the role of myth; and the relation between freedom of thought and freedom of speech. In these lectures, Strauss examines Protagoras and the sophists, providing a detailed discussion of Protagoras as it relates to Plato’s other dialogues and the work of modern thinkers. This book should be of special interest to students both of Plato and of Strauss.
Download or read book Leo Strauss on Plato s Protagoras written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-05-20 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Seminar on Plato's Protagoras offers the transcript of Leo Strauss's seminar on Plato's Protagoras edited and introduced by the renowned scholar Robert Bartlett. In this dialogue, Socrates engaged with the sophist Protagoras. In the lectures, Strauss discusses Protagoras and the sophists in relation to the dialogue Gorgias in which Socrates engages with the meaning of rhetoric, all in light of Socrates' pursuit of the question "How ought one to live?" While Strauss regarded himself as a Platonist and published some work on Plato, including his last book, he published little on the dialogues. In these lectures Strauss treats many of the great Platonic and Straussian themes: the difference between the Socratic political science or art and the Sophistic political science or art of Protagoras; the character and teachability of virtue, its relation to knowledge, and the relations among the virtues, courage, justice, moderation, and wisdom; the good and the pleasant; frankness and concealment; the role of myth; and the relation between freedom of thought and freedom of speech"--
Download or read book Leo Strauss On Plato s Symposium written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001-08 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first major piece of unpublished work by Leo Strauss to appear in more than thirty years, Leo Strauss On Plato's "Symposium" offers the public the unprecedented experience of encountering this renowned scholar as his students did. Given as a course in autumn 1959 under the title "Plato's Political Philosophy," at the University of Chicago, these transcripts previously had circulated in samizdat fashion, passed down from one generation of students to the next. They show Strauss at his best, in his subtle and sometimes indirect style of analysis, which has attracted almost as much commentary as has the content of his thought. Strauss presents a coherent and complete interpretation of the Symposium, proceeding by a meticulous reading from beginning to end. Operating on the once common hypothesis that commentary is an excellent method of expounding the truth, Strauss sheds light not only on the meaning of the dialogue and its place in the Platonic corpus, but also on a host of important topics, including the nature of eros and its place in the overall economy of human life; the perennial quarrel between poetry and philosophy, and the relation of both to piety, politics, and morality; the character of Socrates and the questions of his trial; and many other matters. As provocative as they were a half century ago, these important lectures will be welcomed by students of classics, philosophy, politics, psychology, and political philosophy.
Download or read book Sophistry and Political Philosophy written by Robert C. Bartlett and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was Nietzsche who first identified the similarities between the radical sophistry of antiquity and the contemporary relativism that has come to characterize modern thought. The anti-foundationalism of contemporary thought can be said to have been born with the Sophists, and, of all the Sophists who have come down to us, Protagoras is the most famous and challenging of them. Robert Bartlett s masterful book is the first to examine Plato s Protagoras and Theaetetus together to uncover what lies at the heart of Protagoras teaching, both its moral and political components and its theoretical and epistemological groundings. His superb exegesis of these two dialogues allows one to see more clearly the power of radical relativism: its strengths and its deficiencies. Bartlett notes that political philosophy has been supplanted in the modern era either by the study of the history of political philosophy or by relativism. Although "Understanding Political Philosophy and Sophistry" can certainly be taken as an example of the former, it is much more than that. It seeks to uncover what Socrates, in responding to that teaching, begins to reveal of his own understanding and characteristic activity. It helps us begin to understand, in other words, the phenomenon of philosophy, not just as a system of thought, but as Socrates lived it."
Download or read book How Philosophy Became Socratic written by Laurence Lampert and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-07-15 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plato’s dialogues show Socrates at different ages, beginning when he was about nineteen and already deeply immersed in philosophy and ending with his execution five decades later. By presenting his model philosopher across a fifty-year span of his life, Plato leads his readers to wonder: does that time period correspond to the development of Socrates’ thought? In this magisterial investigation of the evolution of Socrates’ philosophy, Laurence Lampert answers in the affirmative. The chronological route that Plato maps for us, Lampert argues, reveals the enduring record of philosophy as it gradually took the form that came to dominate the life of the mind in the West. The reader accompanies Socrates as he breaks with the century-old tradition of philosophy, turns to his own path, gradually enters into a deeper understanding of nature and human nature, and discovers the successful way to transmit his wisdom to the wider world. Focusing on the final and most prominent step in that process and offering detailed textual analysis of Plato’s Protagoras, Charmides, and Republic, How Philosophy Became Socratic charts Socrates’ gradual discovery of a proper politics to shelter and advance philosophy.
Download or read book Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the outstanding thinkers of our time offers in this book his final words to posterity. Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy was well underway at the time of Leo Strauss's death in 1973. Having chosen the title for the book, he selected the most important writings of his later years and arranged them to clarify the issues in political philosophy that occupied his attention throughout his life. As his choice of title indicates, the heart of Strauss's work is Platonism—a Platonism that is altogether unorthodox and highly controversial. These essays consider, among others, Heidegger, Husserl, Nietzsche, Marx, Moses Maimonides, Machiavelli, and of course Plato himself to test the Platonic understanding of the conflict between philosophy and political society. Strauss argues that an awesome spritual impoverishment has engulfed modernity because of our dimming awareness of that conflict. Thomas Pangle's Introduction places the work within the context of the entire Straussian corpus and focuses especially on Strauss's late Socratic writings as a key to his mature thought. For those already familiar with Strauss, Pangle's essay will provoke thought and debate; for beginning readers of Strauss, it provides a fine introduction. A complete bibliography of Strauss's writings if included.
Download or read book A Commentary on Plato s Protagoras written by Larry Goldberg and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 1983 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this commentary the author presents a reading of Plato's Protagoras with a special concern for the fact that the work is a dialogue. He shows how the intentions of both Socrates and Protagoras, and the specific dramatic circumstances, affect the discussion concerning the teachability of virtue. Mr. Goldberg contends that in order to grasp the order of the arguments about the unity of virtue, Athenian education and democracy, continence, and hedonism, one must consider all the seemingly casual incidents and inter- changes. In particular, he sees in Socrates' ironic analysis of a poem of Simonides a response to the famous speech of Protagoras which contains the sophist's version of the Promethean creation myth. The differences between sophistry and philosophy are clarified, and Socrates emerges as the dutiful citizen doing his best for democratic Athens.
Download or read book The Argument and the Action of Plato s Laws written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-12-10 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The posthumous publication of The Argument and the Action of Plato's "Laws" was compiled shortly before the death of Leo Strauss in 1973. Strauss offers an insightful and instructive reading through careful probing of Plato's classic text. "Strauss's The Argument and the Action of Plato's 'Laws' reflects his interest in political thought, his dogged method of following the argument of the Laws step by step, and his vigorous defense of this dialogue's integrity in respect to the ideals of the Republic."—Cross Currents "The unique characteristics of this commentary on the Laws reflect the care and precision which were the marks of Professor Strauss's efforts to understand the complex thoughts of other men."—Allan D. Nelson, Canadian Journal of Political Science "Thorough and provocative, an important addition to Plato scholarship."—Library Journal "The major purpose of the commentary is to provide a reading of the dialogue which displays its structural arrangement and the continuity of the argument."—J. W. Dy, Bibliographical Bulletin of Philosophy "The reader of Strauss's book is indeed guided closely through the whole text."— M. J. Silverthorne, The Humanities Association Review Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Chicago.
Download or read book Leo Strauss on Plato s Euthyphro written by Hannes Kerber and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2024-04-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leo Strauss famously asserted that the fundamental, defining debate within Western civilization is that between Jerusalem and Athens, piety and philosophy, the Bible and Plato. And yet, surprisingly, Strauss never published any of his thoughts on Plato’s dialogue on piety, the Euthyphro. This volume presents, for the first time, Strauss’s 1948 notebook on the dialogue, written in preparation for a class at the New School for Social Research. Featuring close analysis and line-by-line commentary, the notebook opens a window onto a philosophic mind in action, as Strauss asks questions of the classic text, jots down observations and formulations, and analyzes very specific terms and arguments but also steps back, reviews the overall movement of the dialogue, and reconsiders previous conclusions. Beyond the notebook, the volume also brings together all the known materials that lay out Strauss’s thoughts on the Euthyphro. This includes newly transcribed and edited public lectures, illuminating appendixes, critical essays by volume editors Hannes Kerber and Svetozar Y. Minkov and scholar Wayne Ambler, an account of Strauss’s public lecture, and a new English translation of Plato’s Euthyphro by Seth Benardete, a classicist and one of Strauss’s students. Engaging and inspiring, Leo Strauss on Plato’s “Euthyphro” is a vital resource for scholars and students of political theory, readers interested in the intersection of philosophy and religion, and a must-have for anyone who studies Strauss.
Download or read book Leo Strauss On Plato s Symposium written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001-08 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first major piece of unpublished work by Leo Strauss to appear in more than thirty years, Leo Strauss On Plato's "Symposium" offers the public the unprecedented experience of encountering this renowned scholar as his students did. Given as a course in autumn 1959 under the title "Plato's Political Philosophy," at the University of Chicago, these transcripts previously had circulated in samizdat fashion, passed down from one generation of students to the next. They show Strauss at his best, in his subtle and sometimes indirect style of analysis, which has attracted almost as much commentary as has the content of his thought. Strauss presents a coherent and complete interpretation of the Symposium, proceeding by a meticulous reading from beginning to end. Operating on the once common hypothesis that commentary is an excellent method of expounding the truth, Strauss sheds light not only on the meaning of the dialogue and its place in the Platonic corpus, but also on a host of important topics, including the nature of eros and its place in the overall economy of human life; the perennial quarrel between poetry and philosophy, and the relation of both to piety, politics, and morality; the character of Socrates and the questions of his trial; and many other matters. As provocative as they were a half century ago, these important lectures will be welcomed by students of classics, philosophy, politics, psychology, and political philosophy.
Download or read book Protagoras written by Plato and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains new translations of two dialogues of Plato, the Protagoras and the Meno, together with explanatory notes and substantial interpretive essays. Robert C. Bartlett's translations are as literal as is compatible with sound English style and take into account important textual variations. Because the interpretive essays both sketch the general outlines of the dialogues and take up specific theoretical or philosophic difficulties, they will be of interest not only to those reading the dialogues for the first time but also to those already familiar with them.The Protagoras and the Meno are linked by the attention each pays to the idea of virtue: the latter dialogue focuses on the fundamental Socratic question, "What is virtue?"; the former on the specific virtue of courage, especially in its relation to wisdom. An appendix contains a short extract from Xenophon's Anabasis of Cyrus that vividly portrays the figure of Meno.
Download or read book A New Politics for Philosophy written by Mango Telli and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-11-16 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Politics for Philosophy: Perspectives on Plato, Nietzsche, and Strauss presents meticulous readings of key philosophical works of towering figures from both the classical and modern intellectual traditions: Protagoras, Aeschylus, Xenophon, Plato, Nietzsche, and Leo Strauss. Inspired by the scholarship of Laurence Lampert, this international group of scholars explores questions of the nature or identity of the philosopher. The chapters touch on topics ranging from Plato’s Charmides, Aeschylus’ Prometheia Trilogy, Xenophon’s Hiero or Tyrannicus, Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Ecce Homo, Nietzsche’s Plato, whether Nietzsche thought of himself as a modern-day Socrates, philosophy’s relationship to science, the function of the noontide image in the center of Part IV of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, a re-evaluation of the young Nietzsche’s break from the spell of Schopenhauer, the dramatic date of the conversation presented in Plato’s Republic, Leo Strauss’s account of the modern break with classical political philosophy, and Nietzschean environmentalism. The book also includes an interview with Laurence Lampert.
Download or read book Natural Right and History written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-12-27 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this classic work, Leo Strauss examines the problem of natural right and argues that there is a firm foundation in reality for the distinction between right and wrong in ethics and politics. On the centenary of Strauss's birth, and the fiftieth anniversary of the Walgreen Lectures which spawned the work, Natural Right and History remains as controversial and essential as ever. "Strauss . . . makes a significant contribution towards an understanding of the intellectual crisis in which we find ourselves . . . [and] brings to his task an admirable scholarship and a brilliant, incisive mind."—John H. Hallowell, American Political Science Review Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Political Science at the University of Chicago.
Download or read book Leo Strauss on Nietzsche s Thus Spoke Zarathustra written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-12-24 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although Leo Strauss published little on Nietzsche, his lectures and correspondence demonstrate a deep critical engagement with Nietzsche’s thought. One of the richest contributions is a seminar on Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, taught in 1959 during Strauss’s tenure at the University of Chicago. In the lectures, Strauss draws important parallels between Nietzsche’s most important project and his own ongoing efforts to restore classical political philosophy. With Leo Strauss on Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” eminent Strauss scholar Richard L. Velkley presents Strauss’s lectures on Zarathustra with superb annotations that bring context and clarity to the critical role played by Nietzsche in shaping Strauss’s thought. In addition to the broad relationship between Nietzsche and political philosophy, Strauss adeptly guides readers through Heidegger’s confrontations with Nietzsche, laying out Heidegger’s critique of Nietzsche’s “will to power” while also showing how Heidegger can be read as a foil for his own reading of Nietzsche. The lectures also shed light on the relationship between Heidegger and Strauss, as both philosophers saw Nietzsche as a central figure for understanding the crisis of philosophy and Western civilization. Strauss’s reading of Nietzsche is one of the important—yet little appreciated—philosophical inquiries of the past century, both an original interpretation of Nietzsche’s thought and a deep engagement with the core problems that modernity posed for political philosophy. It will be welcomed by anyone interested in the work of either philosopher.
Download or read book Liberalism Ancient and Modern written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1995-12 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revered and reviled, Leo Strauss has left a rich legacy of work that continues to spark discussion and controversy. This volume of essays ranges over critical themes that define Strauss's thought: the tension between reason and revelation in the Western tradition, the philsophical roots of liberal democracy, and especially the conflicting yet complementary relationship between ancient and modern liberalism. For those seeking to become acquainted with this provocative thinker, one need look no further.
Download or read book Leo Strauss on Political Philosophy written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eminent political theorist’s classic lectures on the history of political philosophy and the problems of historicism and relativism. Leo Strauss is known for reviving classical political philosophy through careful analyses of works by ancient thinkers. As with his published writings, Strauss’s seminars were notoriously dense, accessible only to graduate students and scholars. In 1965, however, Strauss offered an introductory course on political philosophy at the University of Chicago. Using a conversational style, he sought to make political philosophy, as well as his own ideas and methods, understandable to those with little background on the subject. Leo Strauss on Political Philosophy brings together the lectures that comprise Strauss’s “Introduction to Political Philosophy.” Strauss begins by arguing that the proper aim of political philosophy is to determine the common good in society. He then critiques the theories of positivism and historicism, the two most powerful challenges to this intellectual project. These lectures range across the history of political philosophy, providing a valuable, thematically coherent foundation, including explications of many canonical thinkers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Auguste Comte, and Immanuel Kant.
Download or read book How Socrates Became Socrates written by Laurence Lampert and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-03-11 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plato dispersed his account of how Socrates became Socrates across three dialogues. Thus, Plato rendered his becoming discoverable only to readers truly invested. In How Socrates Became Socrates, Laurence Lampert recognizes the path of Plato’s strides and guides us through the true account of Socrates’ becoming. He divulges how and why Plato ordered his Phaedo, Parmenides, and Symposium chronologically to give readers access to Socrates’ development on philosophy’s fundamental questions of being and knowing. In addition to a careful and precise analysis of Plato’s Phaedo,Parmenides, and Symposium, Lampert shows that properly entwined, Plato’s three dialogues fuse to portray a young thinker entering philosophy’s true radical power. Lampert reveals why this radicality needed to be guarded and places this discussion within the greater scheme of the politics of philosophy.
