Strauss and the Crisis of the West

Abstract

During this summer I attempted to better understand the political philosophy of the historian Leo Strauss. To do this, I broke my research into three distinct sections. First, I focused on Strauss?s political philosophy by attempting to understand his criticisms of modernity and understanding of classical philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. Second, I focused on Strauss and art of esoteric and exoteric writing. Third, I attempted to locate Strauss on a contemporary political spectrum; in this vein I also attempted to gauge what role, if any, Strauss hoped to have in American politics.