Progressive Minds, Conservative Politics

Aryeh Tepper

Description

Leo Strauss (1899–1973), one of the preeminent political philosophers of the twentieth century, was an astute interpreter of Maimonides's medieval masterpiece, The Guide of the Perplexed. In Progressive Minds, Conservative Politics, Aryeh Tepper overturns the conventional view of Strauss's interpretation and of Strauss's own mature thought. According to the scholarly consensus, Strauss traced the well-known contradictions in the Guide to the fundamental tension in Maimonides's mind between reason and revelation, going so far as to suggest that while the Jewish philosopher's overt position was religiously pious (i.e., on the side of "Jerusalem"), secretly he was on the side of reason, or "Athens." In Tepper's analysis, Strauss's judgments emerge as much more complex than this and also more open to revision. In his later writings, Tepper shows, Strauss pointed to contradictions in Maimonides's thought not only between but also within both "Jerusalem" and "Athens." Moreover, Strauss identified, and identified himself with, an esoteric Maimonidean teaching on progress: progress within the Bible, beyond the Bible, and even beyond the rabbinic sages. Politically a conservative thinker, Strauss, like Maimonides, located man's deepest satisfaction in progressing in the discernment of the truth. In the fullness of his career, Strauss thus pointed to a third way beyond the modern alternatives of conservatism and progressivism.
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. The Guide of the Perplexed as a Jewish Book

2. The Guide of the Perplexed as a Work of Classical Political Philosophy

3. Torah and Philosophy in The Book of Knowledge

Conclusion

Appendix I: Preface to the 1963 Edition to the Guide and Political Regimes

Appendix II: New Worlds of Power: Maimonides, John Coltrane, and Rabbi Akiva

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Philosophie de la religion
• Judaism
• Philosophy of religion

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 02 décembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438448459
• Langue: English

Extrait

Progressive Minds, Conservative Politics
SUNY series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss

Kenneth Hart Green, editor
Progressive Minds, Conservative Politics
Leo Strauss’s Later Writings on Maimonides
ARYEH TEPPER
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2013 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production by Ryan Morris Marketing by Kate McDonnell
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tepper, Aryeh, 1970–
Progressive minds, conservative politics : Leo Strauss’s later writings on Maimonides / Aryeh Tepper.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4843-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Strauss, Leo. 2. Maimonides, Moses, 1135–1204. Dalalat al-ha’irin. 3. Judaism. 4. Jewish philosophy. 5. Philosophy, Medieval. I. Title.
B945.S84T47 2013
181 .06—dc23
2012047517
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The Guide of the Perplexed as a Jewish Book
2 The Guide of the Perplexed as a Work of Classical Political Philosophy
3 Torah and Philosophy in The Book of Knowledge
Conclusion
Appendix I: Preface to the 1963 Edition of the Guide and Political Regimes
Appendix II: New Worlds of Power: Maimonides, John Coltrane, and Rabbi Akiva
Notes
Bibliography
Index
It is time to act for the Lord, for they have infringed Thy Law.
—Psalms 119: 126
Acknowledgments
Hakarat HaTov , gratefully acknowledging what we have received from others, especially God, is the foundation of Jewish law and life. Taking nothing for granted is also the beginning of philosophy. It is therefore fitting that I begin a book on “Jewish philosophy” by acknowledging all those who have helped make this book a reality.
Beit Morahsa in Jerusalem provided the intellectual home where I first got down to work, while the Tikvah Fund in New York City enabled me to bring the final product to fruition. At Tikvah, Eric Cohen, Neal Kozodoy, and Jonathan Silver helped, in various ways, to get the book ready for publication. Michael Rinella and the staff at SUNY Press—Kate McDonnell, Ryan Morris, Emily Keneston, and Therese Myers—walked me through the publication process and patiently answered all of my questions.
Aaron Singer, Jeff Macy, and Kenneth Green read the original manuscript and offered their thoughtful responses. Kenneth Green, editor of the SUNY Series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss, encouraged me to turn the manuscript into a book and helped to make it happen. Meir Triebitz first pointed me in the direction of Strauss by offhandedly mentioning in a gemarra shiur that Leo Strauss had written the best defense of orthodoxy he had ever read. Rabbi Dr. Triebitz also read the manuscript and urged me to turn it into a book. Zev Harvey originally guided my study of Maimonides, and he later directed my study of Strauss’s later Maimonidean writings. Always generous with his time and his immense erudition, Professor Harvey closely read the manuscript and offered stylistic and substantive criticisms.
Digging a little deeper, my father sparked my desire for wisdom by restlessly pacing through the house, The Closing of the American Mind in hand, and remarking how the book was more than smart, it was “wise.” My mother, may her memory be for a blessing, taught me to listen. She also loved being Jewish. She was my first and best teacher in the art of humble receptivity.
All that said, this book would never have seen the light of day if my wife Maya hadn’t pushed me to go forward when, truth be told, I was looking for a way out. She then watched our four small children so that I could start working. I dedicate the book to Maya in loving appreciation.
Introduction
This book is a study of Leo Strauss’s later writings on Maimonides. In light of the many works and articles that have been written on Strauss, the reader might wonder if another work is really necessary. But the remarkable fact is that while much has been written about Strauss, scholars—not to mention journalists and intellectuals—by and large ignore his later writings. What’s more, these writings include Strauss’s most mature statements on Maimonides and some of his most considered reflections on the relationship between the Bible and philosophy, or “Jerusalem and Athens.” 1 They belong to a class of writings—his later works in general—that Strauss’s student Allan Bloom called “the great Strauss to which all the rest is only a prolegomena.” 2
The aim of this book is to demonstrate to anyone interested in Jewish thought, classical political philosophy, the problem of “progress,” or the perennial tension between reason and revelation what makes Strauss’s later Maimonidean writings so fascinating and important. The book also offers an account of Maimonides's method of interpretation that should be of particular interest to Jews who uphold the integrity of the Jewish tradition but who also recognize the necessity of intellectual-spiritual innovation within the tradition. My method has been straightforward: I carefully studied and tried to elucidate some difficult texts. In so doing, I discovered that Strauss’s later Maimonidean writings constitute a new stage in his understanding of Maimonides, a stage that witnesses the development of Strauss’s old views together with the appearance of some genuinely new and quite surprising views. This book also delineates how Strauss progressed in his understanding of Maimonides.
The book is divided into five parts: an introduction, three central chapters that treat Strauss’s mature, later statements on Maimonides—“How To Begin To Study The Guide for the Perplexed ” and “Notes on Maimonides’ Book of Knowledge ”—and the conclusion.
The Introduction is divided into five sections. The first section traces Strauss’s impact on the world of Maimonidean scholarship; the second section delineates the philosophical context of Strauss’s Maimonidean writings; the third section evaluates the phases of Strauss’s development; the fourth section explores the contributions made by the handful of scholars who have enabled us to progress in our understanding of Strauss’s later Maimonidean writings; and the fifth section explains how Strauss’s later Maimonidean works can profitably be read as exercises in liberal education.
Strauss’s Impact on Maimonidean Scholarship
In order to appreciate Strauss’s immense impact on Maimonidean scholarship, we should begin with Strauss’s first major statement on Maimonides, Philosophy and Law : Contributions to the Understanding of Maimonides and His Predecessors (PAL; 1935). 3 In PAL Strauss argues that to interpret medieval Jewish Philosophy properly, its Platonic, political orientation must first be considered.
Strauss’s argument was made in response to Julius Guttmann’s Philosophy of Judaism , a book in which Guttmann placed the metaphysical questions front and center in his interpretation of medieval Jewish philosophy. According to Strauss’s understanding of Guttmann, “the communication of truths … is the primary end of … revelation. … The community-founding, state-founding meaning of the revelation becomes in Guttmann a secondary end.” 4
In contrast to Guttmann, Strauss argues that the proclamation of the law, and not metaphysics, is the primary end of revelation. 5 Strauss claims that beginning from a political perspective enables one to see the metaphysical questions in their proper perspective, whereas beginning from a metaphysical perspective blinds one to the political problem that is the key for understanding the foundations of philosophy: “The interpretation of medieval Jewish philosophy beginning from Platonic politics … does not have to lose sight of the metaphysical problems that stand in the foreground for the medieval philosophers themselves. … If, on the other hand, one begins from the metaphysical problems, one misses, as the history of the inquiry to date clearly shows, the political problem, in which is concealed nothing less than the foundation of philosophy, the philosophic elucidation of the presupposition of philosophizing.” 6
PAL motivated Guttmann to refine his own religious philosophy, and it changed the trajectory of the academic study of medieval Jewish philosophy in the twentieth century: political questions became centrally important. 7 And by explicating how seemingly metaphysical themes such as prophecy are best understood within the context of political philosophy—“The prophet is the founder of a community directed towards the specific perfection of man, and is thus the founder of the ideal state” 8 —Strauss’s approach changed the trajectory of the study of medieval political philosophy in general. As Strauss’s students Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mahdi write in their introduction to Medieval Political Philosophy , a work executed in light of Strauss’s approach: “It is almost impossible to exaggerate the size or number of the obstacles that stand in the way of the modern reader’s effort to understand [medieval political philosophy] … the intellectual baggage that the modern reader typically drags along with him … well-nigh blocks the subject matter from view.” 9 In PAL Strauss begins the work of rendering medieval political philosophy intelligible to the modern reader.
As influential as PAL proved to be, that influence paled in comparison to the impact of Strauss’s next work, Persecution and the Art of Writing (PAW). 10 In PAW Strauss presents his interpretation of medieval philosophy within th