May 25, 2006
In an esay on tyranny in What is Political Philosophy and Other Studies Leo Strauss makes a distinction between present day and classical tyranny. He says:
The difference between [the two] has its root in the diffrence between the modern notion of philosophy or science and the classical notion of philosophy or science .Present day tyranny, in contradistinctin to classicla tyranny is based on the unlimited progress in the "conquest of nature" which is made possible by modern sceince, as well as the popualization or diffusion of philosophic or scientific knowledge. Both possiblities...were known to the classics....But the classics rejected them as "unnatural" , ie., as destructive of humanity. They did not dream of present day tyranny because they regarded its basic presupposition as so preposterous that they turned their imagination in entirely different directions. (p.96)
Today we live in a world that regards unlimited technological progress and universal enlightenment as essential for becoming human.
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