scholarly journals LEO STRAUSS AND THE CHARACTER OF CLASSICAL POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (151) ◽  
pp. 531
Author(s):  
Richard Romeiro
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Leo Strauss ◽  
Happy Life ◽  
The City ◽  
Contemplative Life ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Moral Demands

This paper aims to present Leo Strauss’s interpretation of the meaning of classical political philosophy. To this end, the paper will try to show how, for Strauss, classical political philosophy, emerging from the original conflict that opposes philosophic reason to the authorized opinions of the city, was organized as a fundamentally esoteric teaching that sought to make the practical and moral demands of political life, expressed exemplarily in the ideal of best regime, compatible with the defense of contemplative life as the most perfect and happy life for man.

On Cropsey's World: Joseph Cropsey and the Tradition of Political Philosophy

1998 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-342
Author(s):  
Gregory Bruce Smith
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Leo Strauss ◽  
The Future ◽  
Ongoing Dialogue ◽  
Made In

Throughout his corpus, Joseph Cropsey reflects upon the tradition of political philosophy. Those reflections can be fruitfully approached under four headings. First, Cropsey questions the nature and origins of political philosophy as well as its cosmological or metaphysical foundations. Second, Cropsey questions the customary periodizations of the tradition of political philosophy. He especially questions the usefulness of the ancients-moderns distinction. Third, Cropsey reflects upon the relation between the tradition of political philosophy and concrete political life past and present. In the process, he tries to show the ways in which comprehensive constellations of ideas work their way into and inform everyday life. Fourth, Cropsey reflects upon the nature of the American regime and its prospects for the future. Throughout, it becomes clear that Cropsey has engaged in an ongoing dialogue with his mentor Leo Strauss. Finally, it also becomes clear, contrary to recent assertions made in response to Plato's World, that Cropsey engages in a series of subtle critiques of Nietzschean and Heideggerian historicism and thereby of contemporary postmodernism as well.

scholarly journals PARA ALÉM DA CIDADE: UMA REFLEXÃO ACERCA DAS RELAÇÕES ENTRE POLÍTICA, EXCELÊNCIA E RACIONALIDADE EM ARISTÓTELES

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (121) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Richard Romeiro Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
Nicomachean Ethics ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The City ◽  
Contemplative Life

Como se sabe, a Ética a Nicômaco de Aristóteles culmina na contundente afirmação de que a melhor forma de vida para o homem, a vida mais feliz e excelente, é não a vida engajada nos negócios e práticas da cidade, mas a vida consagrada ao exercício da atividade teorética ou contemplativa, a qual se impõe, assim, como o verdadeiro bem soberano e como um horizonte superior à vida política. O presente artigo busca examinar em que medida esse elogio da supremacia da vida contemplativa sobre a vida política, determinando uma forma de eudaimonía intelectual superior à ordem comunitária da cidade, aponta para a constituição, em Aristóteles, de um ideal de individualidade noética que transcende as fronteiras da pólis.Abstract: As it is known, AristotleÊs Nicomachean Ethics has its climax in the assertion of that the best way of life for man, i. e., the happiest and most excellent life for us, is not the life engaged in the business and practical affairs of the city, but the life dedicated to the exercise of theoretical or contemplative activity, which therefore imposes itself as the true sovereign good and as an axiological reference superior to political life. This paper seeks to examine how this praise of the supremacy of contemplative life above political life, determining a type of intellectual eudaimonia superior to the communitarian order of the city, points to the constitution in Aristotle of an ideal of noetical individuality that transcends the borders of the polis. 

scholarly journals UTOPOPHOBIA AS A VOCATION: THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS OF IDEAL AND NONIDEAL POLITICAL THEORY

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 175-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Frazer
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Professional Ethics ◽  
Professional Ethic ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Meta Level ◽  
Integral Element ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract:The debate between proponents of ideal and nonideal approaches to political philosophy has thus far been framed as a meta-level debate about normative theory. The argument of this essay will be that the ideal/nonideal debate can be helpfully reframed as a ground-level debate within normative theory. Specifically, it can be understood as a debate within the applied normative field of professional ethics, with the profession being examined that of political philosophy itself. If the community of academic political theorists and philosophers cannot help us navigate the problems we face in actual political life, they have not lived up to the moral demands of their vocation. A moderate form of what David Estlund decries as “utopophobia” is therefore an integral element of a proper professional ethic for political philosophers. The moderate utopophobe maintains that while devoting scarce time and resources to constructing utopias may sometimes be justifiable, it is never self-justifying. Utopianism is defensible only insofar as it can reasonably be expected to help inform or improve non-utopian political thinking.

Waiting for Grace: Philosophy and Politics in Plato's Republic

1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Christian
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Leo Strauss ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The City

AbstractThe traditional interpretation of Plato's Republic in the English-speaking world, expressed most sharply by Sir Karl Popper, was that it represented a serious proposal for political rule. However, Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom have argued that Plato's real concern was to protect the position of philosophy within the city. Influenced by Simone Weil, this article argues that even Strauss and Bloom do not express the extent of Plato's rejection of the political life. By examining Plato's handling of such themes as gold and nakedness, the article concludes that Plato's central concern in the Republic was to explore how a soul could strive for the Good, given that the human condition inescapably required social life.

The Tyranny of the Ideal

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Gaus
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Moral Inquiry ◽  
Open Society ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
The World ◽  
Diverse Society ◽  
Just Society ◽  
The Ideal

This book lays out a vision for how we should theorize about justice in a diverse society. It shows how free and equal people, faced with intractable struggles and irreconcilable conflicts, might share a common moral life shaped by a just framework. The book argues that if we are to take diversity seriously and if moral inquiry is sincere about shaping the world, then the pursuit of idealized and perfect theories of justice—essentially, the entire production of theories of justice that has dominated political philosophy for the past forty years—needs to change. Drawing on recent work in social science and philosophy, the book points to an important paradox: only those in a heterogeneous society—with its various religious, moral, and political perspectives—have a reasonable hope of understanding what an ideally just society would be like. However, due to its very nature, this world could never be collectively devoted to any single ideal. The book defends the moral constitution of this pluralistic, open society, where the very clash and disagreement of ideals spurs all to better understand what their personal ideals of justice happen to be. Presenting an original framework for how we should think about morality, this book rigorously analyzes a theory of ideal justice more suitable for contemporary times.

The critical theory of democracy in Western political thought

2020 ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Ruqaya Saeed Khalkhal
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
The Church ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
Or Applications ◽  
The Ideal

The darkness that Europe lived in the shadow of the Church obscured the light that was radiating in other parts, and even put forward the idea of democracy by birth, especially that it emerged from the tent of Greek civilization did not mature in later centuries, especially after the clergy and ideological orientation for Protestants and Catholics at the crossroads Political life, but when the Renaissance emerged and the intellectual movement began to interact both at the level of science and politics, the Europeans in democracy found refuge to get rid of the tyranny of the church, and the fruits of the application of democracy began to appear on the surface of most Western societies, which were at the forefront to be doubtful forms of governece.        Democracy, both in theory and in practice, did not always reflect Western political realities, and even since the Greek proposition, it has not lived up to the idealism that was expected to ensure continuity. Even if there is a perception of the success of the democratic process in Western societies, but it was repulsed unable to apply in Islamic societies, because of the social contradiction added to the nature of the ruling regimes, and it is neither scientific nor realistic to convey perceptions or applications that do not conflict only with our civilized reality The political realization created by certain historical circumstances, and then disguises the different reality that produced them for the purpose of resonance in the ideal application.

Between Specters of War and Visions of Peace

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald M. Mara
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Democracies

This book examines how ideas of war and peace have functioned as organizing frames of reference within the history of political theory. It interprets ten widely read figures in that history within five thematically focused chapters that pair (in order) Schmitt and Derrida, Aquinas and Machiavelli, Hobbes and Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche, and Thucydides and Plato. The book’s substantive argument is that attempts to establish either war or peace as dominant intellectual perspectives obscure too much of political life. The book argues for a style of political theory committed more to questioning than to closure. It challenges two powerful currents in contemporary political philosophy: the verdict that premodern or metaphysical texts cannot speak to modern and postmodern societies, and the insistence that all forms of political theory be some form of democratic theory. What is offered instead is a nontraditional defense of the tradition and a democratic justification for moving beyond democratic theory. Though the book avoids any attempt to show the immediate relevance of these interpretations to current politics, its impetus stems very much from the current political circumstances. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century , a series of wars has eroded confidence in the progressively peaceful character of international relations; citizens of the Western democracies are being warned repeatedly about the threats posed within a dangerous world. In this turbulent context, democratic citizens must think more critically about the actions their governments undertake. The texts interpreted here are valuable resources for such critical thinking.

Socrates’ First City: Pleonexia and the Thought Experiment

Apeiron ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Diaco
Keyword(s):  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Happy Life ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
The City

AbstractThe present study provides an analysis of Socrates’ account of the first polis in Republic 2 as a thought experiment and draws attention to the fact that Socrates combines both explanatory and evaluative aspects in his scenario. The paper further shows how the analysis of the city of pigs as a thought experiment can explain the lack of pleonexia by saving both the letter of the text, according to which there are no “pleonectic” desires in the city of pigs, and the fact that the first polis is nonetheless concerned with human beings. For, in contrast to the account offered by Glaucon earlier in Book 2, Socrates highlights our needs and lack of self-sufficiency as well as our compatibility with an advantageous and happy life in a community.

Metabolic response to temperature stress in the Colombian freshwater crab Neostrengeria macropa (H. Milne Edwards, 1853) (Decapoda: Brachyura: Pseudothelphusidae)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Response ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Predator Prey ◽  
Temperature Range ◽  
Indicator Group ◽  
Response To Temperature ◽  
Performance Results ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract Freshwater crustaceans are distributed throughout the montane and lowland areas of Colombia, and are therefore a useful indicator group for how aquatic species will respond to climate change. As such, metabolic determination of physiological performance was evaluated for the Colombian pseudothelphusid crab, Neostrengeria macropa (H. Milne Edwards, 1853), over a temperature range inclusive of current temperatures and those predicted by future scenarios in the plateau around the city of Bogotá, namely from 8 °C to 30 °C. The performance results mostly aligned with previous exploratory behavioral determination of the ideal temperature range in the same species, although the metabolism increased at the highest temperature treatments, a point when exploratory behavior declined. These results indicate that this species of montane crab behaviorally compensates for increased thermal stress by decreasing its physical activity, which could have negative predator-prey consequences with changes to community structure as different species undergo climate-mediated geographic range shifts in the region. As this species is endemic to the plateau surrounding Bogotá, it also experiences a number of other stressors to its survival, including infrastructure development and invasive species.

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