Ebook Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy Rochester Studies in Medieval Political Thought Joshua Parens 9781580465533 Books
Ebook Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy Rochester Studies in Medieval Political Thought Joshua Parens 9781580465533 Books
Download As PDF : Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy Rochester Studies in Medieval Political Thought Joshua Parens 9781580465533 Books
Leo Strauss is known primarily for reviving classical political philosophy. Strauss recovered that great tradition of thought largely lost to the West by beginning his study of classical thought with its teaching on politics rather than its metaphysics. What brought Strauss to this way of reading the classics, however, was a discovery he made as a young political scientist studying the obscure texts of Islamic and Jewish medieval political thought.
In this volume, Joshua Parens examines Strauss's investigations of medieval political philosophy, offering interpretations of his writings on the great thinkers of that tradition, including interpretations of his most difficult writings on Alfarabi and Maimonides. In addition Parens explicates Strauss's statements on Christian medieval thought and his argument for rejecting the Scholastic paradigm as a method for interpreting Islamic and Jewish thought. Contrasting Scholasticism with Islamic and Jewish medieval political philosophy, Parens clarifies the theme of Strauss's thought, what Strauss calls the "theologico-political problem," and reveals the significance of medieval political philosophy in the Western tradition.
Ebook Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy Rochester Studies in Medieval Political Thought Joshua Parens 9781580465533 Books
"This wonderfully insightful book persuasively argues that the various syntheses of reason and revelation in the Western philosophical tradition are due to the way in which such syntheses view the heritage from within a Christian framework whose origins can be traced to medieval scholasticism. More specifically, the intention of this book is to demonstrate that in order to properly understand or “recover†medieval philosophy in its entirety one must recognize that in both Islamic and Jewish philosophy such syntheses between reason and revelation were emphatically not held by their two most significant representatives, namely Alfarabi and Maimonides. In this respect, Dr. Parens’s “recovery†of “medieval philosophy†is coextensive with a discovery of medieval philosophy liberated from the obscuring lens of Christian scholasticism through which Islamic and Jewish medieval philosophy is all too often viewed.
That said, Dr. Parens’s over-all argument is definitively informed by the writings of Leo Strauss in two crucial ways. First, Dr. Parens writes in a patient manner to those not very familiar with Strauss by explicitly repeating himself as well as his primary textual citations at certain key points where he fully recognized the controversial nature of what is at issue. Second, Dr. Parens writes in an abundantly fair-minded way regarding the various thematic and methodological criticisms of Strauss. Thematically, these criticism principally concern the alleged harmonization of philosophy and religion (viz. the harmonization of philosophy and politics) attributed to Alfarabi and Maimonides; methodically, these criticisms principally concern dismissing or significantly underrating the significance of irony – what Dr. Parens refers to as “speaking Greek†– in Alfarabi and Maimonides. Dr. Parens’s fair-minded treatment of these criticisms consists of meticulously indicating exactly where and why in these criticisms he finds Strauss more persuasive than the most influential of such arguments offered against Strauss’s various interpretations of the philosophers under consideration. Accordingly, this book provides an introduction for beginners and experts alike to medieval philosophy as well as an introduction to beginners and experts alike of Leo Strauss.
In reading this book the reader will immediately be struck by two important things. First, Dr. Paresn has written and arranged the content in brief but astonishingly clear sections which make his overall argument appear almost mathematical in its focus upon precision to the content. Second, at virtually every point along Dr.Parens’s overall argument he has meticulously documented his inferences, conclusions, and salient points of dispute with others through a copious amount of invaluable endnotes citing primary and secondary literature for the benefit of his readers.
The profoundly relevant nature of Dr. Parens’s book is the way in which his emphasis upon the Farabian and Maimonidian non-synthesis of reason and revelation provides a fruitful reassessment of the various postmodern claims that the so-called “history†of Western philosophy have proven reason incapable of providing mankind with the necessary guidance concerning the most significant things – the trans-historical things which orient and inform the deepest longings of the human soul such as the pursuit to articulate beauty and justice. To this aim, the invaluable assistance of the thought of Leo Strauss which Dr. Parens underscores throughout is what it would mean for political philosophy to be “first philosophy†(as opposed to metaphysics). Thus, the profound relevance of Dr. Parens’s book is that it explores a forgotten defense of human reason as an alternative to the “poetic thinking†offered by much of postmodern thought which asserts that human reason as such cannot offer us the guidance we seek in orienting our lives with the kind of significant meaning we desire. Alternatively, the following can be taken as synoptic of what Dr. Parens’s takes as his task to demonstrate in this book:
“We turn back to Alfarabi, Maimonides, and Halevi not because we find in them ready-made political solutions for our time but because they enable us to look anew at our world. Because the leading modern political solutions include a large mechanical or institutional component, they make us prone to forgetfulness and complacency about the great challenges posed by human nature. Strauss offers us Islamic and Jewish medieval philosophy that can awaken us from our stupor rather than lulling us into complacency†(65)."
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Tags : Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy (Rochester Studies in Medieval Political Thought) [Joshua Parens] on . Leo Strauss is known primarily for reviving classical political philosophy. Strauss recovered that great tradition of thought largely lost to the West by beginning his study of classical thought with its teaching on politics rather than its metaphysics. What brought Strauss to this way of reading the classics,Joshua Parens,Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy (Rochester Studies in Medieval Political Thought),University of Rochester Press,1580465536,History Theory,Faaraabai,Maimonides, Moses,Philosophy, Medieval,Philosophy, Medieval.,Political science - History - To 1500,Political science - Philosophy,Political science;History;To 1500.,Political science;Philosophy.,Strauss, Leo,Economics,Nonfiction,History,History Theory - General,Keywords; Casemate; University of Rochester Press; Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy; 9781580465533,Non-Fiction,PHILOSOPHY / History Surveys / Medieval,POLITICAL SCIENCE / History Theory,Philosophy/History Surveys - Medieval,Philosophy/Political,Political,Political Science,Political science theory,Politics / Current Events,Politics/International Relations,Politics/Intl Relations,RELIGION / Philosophy,Religion/Philosophy,Scholarly/Graduate,TEXT,United States,History Theory - General,PHILOSOPHY / History Surveys / Medieval,POLITICAL SCIENCE / History Theory,Philosophy/History Surveys - Medieval,Philosophy/Political,Political,RELIGION / Philosophy,Religion/Philosophy,Politics / Current Events,Political Science,Politics/International Relations,Political science theory
Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy Rochester Studies in Medieval Political Thought Joshua Parens 9781580465533 Books Reviews :
Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy Rochester Studies in Medieval Political Thought Joshua Parens 9781580465533 Books Reviews
- This wonderfully insightful book persuasively argues that the various syntheses of reason and revelation in the Western philosophical tradition are due to the way in which such syntheses view the heritage from within a Christian framework whose origins can be traced to medieval scholasticism. More specifically, the intention of this book is to demonstrate that in order to properly understand or “recover†medieval philosophy in its entirety one must recognize that in both Islamic and Jewish philosophy such syntheses between reason and revelation were emphatically not held by their two most significant representatives, namely Alfarabi and Maimonides. In this respect, Dr. Parens’s “recovery†of “medieval philosophy†is coextensive with a discovery of medieval philosophy liberated from the obscuring lens of Christian scholasticism through which Islamic and Jewish medieval philosophy is all too often viewed.
That said, Dr. Parens’s over-all argument is definitively informed by the writings of Leo Strauss in two crucial ways. First, Dr. Parens writes in a patient manner to those not very familiar with Strauss by explicitly repeating himself as well as his primary textual citations at certain key points where he fully recognized the controversial nature of what is at issue. Second, Dr. Parens writes in an abundantly fair-minded way regarding the various thematic and methodological criticisms of Strauss. Thematically, these criticism principally concern the alleged harmonization of philosophy and religion (viz. the harmonization of philosophy and politics) attributed to Alfarabi and Maimonides; methodically, these criticisms principally concern dismissing or significantly underrating the significance of irony – what Dr. Parens refers to as “speaking Greek†– in Alfarabi and Maimonides. Dr. Parens’s fair-minded treatment of these criticisms consists of meticulously indicating exactly where and why in these criticisms he finds Strauss more persuasive than the most influential of such arguments offered against Strauss’s various interpretations of the philosophers under consideration. Accordingly, this book provides an introduction for beginners and experts alike to medieval philosophy as well as an introduction to beginners and experts alike of Leo Strauss.
In reading this book the reader will immediately be struck by two important things. First, Dr. Paresn has written and arranged the content in brief but astonishingly clear sections which make his overall argument appear almost mathematical in its focus upon precision to the content. Second, at virtually every point along Dr.Parens’s overall argument he has meticulously documented his inferences, conclusions, and salient points of dispute with others through a copious amount of invaluable endnotes citing primary and secondary literature for the benefit of his readers.
The profoundly relevant nature of Dr. Parens’s book is the way in which his emphasis upon the Farabian and Maimonidian non-synthesis of reason and revelation provides a fruitful reassessment of the various postmodern claims that the so-called “history†of Western philosophy have proven reason incapable of providing mankind with the necessary guidance concerning the most significant things – the trans-historical things which orient and inform the deepest longings of the human soul such as the pursuit to articulate beauty and justice. To this aim, the invaluable assistance of the thought of Leo Strauss which Dr. Parens underscores throughout is what it would mean for political philosophy to be “first philosophy†(as opposed to metaphysics). Thus, the profound relevance of Dr. Parens’s book is that it explores a forgotten defense of human reason as an alternative to the “poetic thinking†offered by much of postmodern thought which asserts that human reason as such cannot offer us the guidance we seek in orienting our lives with the kind of significant meaning we desire. Alternatively, the following can be taken as synoptic of what Dr. Parens’s takes as his task to demonstrate in this book
“We turn back to Alfarabi, Maimonides, and Halevi not because we find in them ready-made political solutions for our time but because they enable us to look anew at our world. Because the leading modern political solutions include a large mechanical or institutional component, they make us prone to forgetfulness and complacency about the great challenges posed by human nature. Strauss offers us Islamic and Jewish medieval philosophy that can awaken us from our stupor rather than lulling us into complacency†(65).
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