August 1, 2007
Contrary to some left wing interpretations that link Leo Strauss to the neo-consevatives reshaping of American foreign policy, Strauss is no imperialist and no reactionary, even if he was an elitist. Strauss was a lover of philosophy, excellence, and moderation, and an enemy of nihilism and relativism; the philosopher who in some sense made the serious study of political philosophy possible again.
Strauss disclosed the irreconcilability of philosophy and politics, he meditated even more deeply on the tension between reason and revelation, between Athens and Jerusalem. As he never tired of saying, “The core, the nerve of Western intellectual history, Western spiritual history, one could almost say, is the conflict between the biblical and the philosophical notions of the good life... this unresolved conflict is the secret of the vitality of Western civilization.”
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