Leo Strauss's Indictment of Christain Philosophy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6402178
AutoresClark A Merrill (autor de correspondencia)
Año2000
Volumen62
Número1
Páginas77-106
Fecha de publicación2000-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670500030254
OpenAlexW2100691539
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas14

Leo Strauss's writings reveal a subtle but consistent set of accusations against the influence of Christian thinkers on political philosophy. These accusations may be summarized in three charges. First, the attempt by Aquinas and other Christian scholastics to synthesize faith and reason led later philosophers to eschew prudence in favor of a humane project to employ science to transform political life. The result was the destruction of themodus vivendi, safeguarded by classical political philosophy, between pious citizens and diffident but inwardly free philosophers. Second, the rationalization of political life implies that a universal regime is possible. But, unless all men become philosophers, this universal regime can be only a universal tyranny, ruled by means of perverted faith in the guise of a final philosophy. Third, Christian thinkers must bear ultimate responsibility for precipitating the early modern rejection of classical political philosophy. Without the Christian appropriation of Aristotle, there might never have been a Machiavelli or a Hobbes

Appropriation · Epistemology · Faith · Indictment · Metaphysics · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Prudence · Rationalization (economics · Law · Philosophy · Political Science Research and Education · Political Theory and Influence · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought