Tag Archives: leo strauss

On the intersection of poetry, politics and philosophy

I’ve owed all of you an explanation for this blog for some time, but I dread writing posts like these. The best discussion of how poetry, politics and philosophy relate is Book X of Plato’s Republic. What is below is obviously not meant to replace that discussion in any way. All I want to do …

December 3, 2009 – 11:41 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, plato, poetry, politics, xenophon | Tagged | Comments (0)

Preliminary Speculative Note on Strauss’ “Niccolo Machiavelli”

Page references are to Leo Strauss’ “Niccolo Machiavelli,” found in Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy, ed. Pangle, pp.  210-228 The judicious alternation of virtue and vice is virtue (virtu) in his [Machiavelli's] meaning of the word (215). In [Discourses] II 13, Machiavelli asserts and in a manner proves that one rises from a low or …

June 17, 2009 – 12:13 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Tagged | Comments (2)

If I want to get started reading Leo Strauss, where do I begin?

Amazon sent a promotional e-mail this morning informing me there is a Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss, and I took a look and yeah, there are some big names writing the essays: Stephen Smith, Laurence Lampert (whose work on Nietzsche I really need to spend more time with), the Zuckerts (whose work generally I need …

June 15, 2009 – 10:36 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, philosophy, politics | Tagged | Comments (16)

The Last Things

1. For consideration: Aristotle…in the Poetics… compares the plot of a drama to a living animal, whose beauty depends not only on the arrangement of its parts, but also on a size that allows the design of the whole to be perceived as a whole. Gathering these studies together is for us an expression of …

March 2, 2009 – 11:23 am | By ashok | Posted in personal, philosophy | Tagged | Comments (2)

Just finished a Straussian ritual, Aristophanes’ “Clouds:” Preliminary Notes on the Limits of Comedy

1. Consideration of comedians: they use laughter to make everything ridiculous. The good things, while made ridiculous, still are essentially good and cannot be dismissed. They are necessary no matter how much we laugh. The bad things, made ridiculous, fall away quickly. All comedians – including those who believe all is spin, such as Jon …

November 11, 2008 – 8:30 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, plato, xenophon | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Creating Statesmen, Part 1: Aristotlean Natural Right

All material quoted below is from Leo Strauss’ Natural Right and History, “Classic Natural Right,” pp. 156-164 1. We begin by distinguishing between nature (Gk. physis) and convention (Gk. nomos). Convention we are all familiar with – men make words and laws; proper practice establishes something as a convention. Money is the ultimate extension of …

September 3, 2008 – 9:41 am | By ashok | Posted in aristotle, philosophy, politics | Tagged | Comments (3)

Ah, Academia – That Lovely Place Where No One Can Do a Damn Thing for Anyone Else

The letter below is taken from Willmoore Kendall: Maverick of American Conservatives, by John A. Murley, published by Lexington Books in 2002. Kendall founded the Politics program at the University of Dallas. May 14, 1961 Professor Willmoore Kendall Residenzia Pinar 21 Madrid 6 Spain Dear Willmoore: I have frequently wondered why I did not hear …

February 13, 2008 – 3:07 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, politics | Tagged , | Comments (3)

I’ll Believe the Attacks on the Secondary Sources I Use When They’re More Than Character Assassination

The argument in question: pay attention, if you can stomach it, to the passages on Strauss A large portion of the academy is in love with the idea that random bits of information can create shortcuts to accomplishment or make an effective case – to be blunt, they hold that knowledge is power. If knowledge …

August 20, 2007 – 5:14 pm | By ashok | Posted in academia | Tagged | Comments (0)

Interview: 3 Questions for Sharon Loo

Sharon Loo’s immense learning and established skills in editing and writing serve her well in academia, as well as make her a genuinely public intellectual: someone accessible and thoughtful and perhaps just flat-out interesting. Her work in feminism can be introduced through this issue of the journal Panorama, where you will find an article not …

July 6, 2007 – 2:39 am | By ashok | Posted in politics | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The Relevance of Thucydides: History as Personal

Christopher Bruell’s essay “Thucydides’ view of Athenian Imperialism” is what is quoted repeatedly and responded to below. Bruell begins by saying that a historian could be thought “concerned above all with what belongs to the past.” Is Thucydides, who wrote about the past, to be considered an historian? Thucydides is not properly classified as an …

May 18, 2007 – 10:41 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, politics | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)