Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture

Philipp Von Wussow

Description

2020 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

In this book, Philipp von Wussow argues that the philosophical project of Leo Strauss must be located in the intersection of culture, religion, and the political. Based on archival research on the philosophy of Strauss, von Wussow provides in-depth interpretations of key texts and their larger theoretical contexts. Presenting the necessary background in German-Jewish philosophy of the interwar period, von Wussow then offers detailed accounts and comprehensive interpretations of Strauss's early masterwork, Philosophy and Law, his wartime lecture "German Nihilism," the sources and the scope of Strauss's critique of modern "relativism," and a close commentary on the late text "Jerusalem and Athens." With its rare blend of close reading and larger perspectives, this book is valuable for students of political philosophy, continental thought, and twentieth-century Jewish philosophy alike. It is indispensable as a guide to Strauss's philosophical project, as well as to some of the most intricate details of his writings.
Preface

Introduction: Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture

Part I: The Return of Religion, the Remnants of Neo-Kantianism, and the Systematic Place of "the Political"

1. Hermann Cohen on the Systematic Place of Religion

2. Post-Cohenian Quarrels: Rosenzweig, Natorp, Strauss

3. Strauss on Paul Natorp and Ernst Cassirer

4. Returning to Cohen: "Cohen and Maimonides" on Ethics and Politics

5. Strauss and Carl Schmitt: Vanquishing the "Systematics of Liberal Thought"

Part II: The Argument and the Action of Philosophy and Law

6. A Hidden Masterpiece of Twentieth-Century Philosophy

7. Strauss's Introduction

8. Leo Strauss and Julius Guttmann on the History of Jewish Philosophy

9. A Complex Afterlife: Julius Guttmann, the "Jewish Thomism" Affair, and the Turn to Exotericism

Part III: "German Nihilism" and the Intellectual Origins of National Socialism

10. Genealogies of National Socialism

11. Strauss's Argument

Part IV: Strauss on Modern Relativism

12. From "Culture" to "Cultures": Émigré Scholars, the Rise of Cultural Anthropology, and the Americanization of Leo Strauss

13. Cannibalism: Leo Strauss and Cultural Anthropology

14. Irrationalism and the Remnants of the Social Question

15. Two Types of Relativism

Part V: Jerusalem and Athens

16. Jerusalem and Athens or Jerusalem versus Athens?

Conclusion: Leo Strauss and "the Natural Way" of Reading

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Ancient philosophy
• Medieval philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438478418
• Langue: English

Extrait

Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture
SUNY series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss

Kenneth Hart Green, editor
Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture
Philipp von Wussow
Cover image of Leo Strauss courtesy of Jenny Strauss Clay.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2020 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
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wussow, Philipp von, author.
Title: Leo Strauss and the theopolitics of culture / Philipp von Wussow.
Description: Albany : State University of New York, 2020. | Series: SUNY series in the thought and legacy of Leo Strauss | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019019665 | ISBN 9781438478395 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438478418 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Strauss, Leo.
Classification: LCC B945.S84 W87 2020 | DDC 181/.06—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019019665
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture
Part I The Return of Religion, the Remnants of Neo-Kantianism, and the Systematic Place of “the Political”
1. Hermann Cohen on the Systematic Place of Religion
2. Post-Cohenian Quarrels: Rosenzweig, Natorp, Strauss
3. Strauss on Paul Natorp and Ernst Cassirer
4. Returning to Cohen: “Cohen and Maimonides” on Ethics and Politics
5. Strauss and Carl Schmitt: Vanquishing the “Systematics of Liberal Thought”
Part II The Argument and the Action of Philosophy and Law
6. A Hidden Masterpiece of Twentieth-Century Philosophy
7. Strauss’s Introduction
8. Leo Strauss and Julius Guttmann on the History of Jewish Philosophy
9. A Complex Afterlife: Julius Guttmann, the “Jewish Thomism” Affair, and the Turn to Exotericism
Part III “German Nihilism” and the Intellectual Origins of National Socialism
10. Genealogies of National Socialism
11. Strauss’s Argument
Part IV Strauss on Modern Relativism
12. From “Culture” to “Cultures”: Émigré Scholars, the Rise of Cultural Anthropology, and the Americanization of Leo Strauss
13. Cannibalism: Leo Strauss and Cultural Anthropology
14. Irrationalism and the Remnants of the Social Question
15. Two Types of Relativism
Part V Jerusalem and Athens
16. Jerusalem and Athens or Jerusalem versus Athens?
Conclusion: Leo Strauss and “the Natural Way” of Reading
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
I first read Leo Strauss as a recent post-doc at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. At that time I sought to veer away from my home ground of twentieth-century continental philosophy and simultaneously began to study political philosophy and Jewish philosophy. Needless to say, I learned soon enough that reading Leo Strauss requires proper training in all three fields. But most of all, it requires the close and continuous encounter with his writings—the type of “listening” that is at odds with the derivate discourses of Straussians and anti-Straussians alike.
It’s been a long way from this initial study work to the completion of this book. It involved three different university affiliations, the loss of numerous handwritten materials in a car burglary in Rome, and some surprising changes in the outline of this book. Among other things, it was clear from the beginning that Philosophy and Law (1935) would be an important text for my argument, but the plan to write a long commentary on the book materialized only at a late stage. The initial idea to trace Strauss’s inconspicuous critique of “culture” through five or six different contexts of his work, however, remained unchanged. The hesitation over the exact number is due to a peculiarity in the first part of this study, which traces the emergence of Strauss’s philosophical project from the templates of Hermann Cohen and his disciples and defectors. The encounter with Carl Schmitt appears as an appendix to the Cohenian problem here, although one may be tempted to treat it as a context of its own (or even as the founding moment of his political philosophizing). Tracing the late ramifications of neo-Kantian thought through even the most unexpected places of his writings has been a guiding motif of this work.
Although this study is unmistakably the product of many long hours in university libraries and archives, it would not have been possible without the help of others. Paul Mendes-Flohr, who first introduced me to the study of German-Jewish thought, has been a steady supporter of my work from time immemorial, and the most vivid example of a great human being. Christian Wiese has been a most wonderful employer and colleague, and he went out of his way to support my Habilitation at Goethe University on the basis of this study. Jeffrey A. Bernstein introduced me to a number of people in the United States, and the vivid exchange of ideas on even the most intricate details of Strauss’s writings had a great impact on the formation of this study.
The completion was made possible with the help of a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council).
I truly appreciated the conversations with many great colleagues, among them Leora Batnitzky, Cedric Cohen Skalli, Peter Gostmann, David Janssens, George Y. Kohler, Menachem Lorberbaum, Thomas Meyer, Peter Minowitz, David Myers, Dietrich Schotte, Eugene Sheppard, David Weinstein, Christoph von Wolzogen, and Michael Zank.
I am grateful to Nathan Tarcov for allowing me to quote from Strauss’s unpublished writings and correspondences, Kenneth Hart Green for his generous offer to publish the book in the SUNY Press series “The Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss,” and Michael Rinella of SUNY Press for his indispensable help with the preparation of the text. I also wish to thank the unknown reviewers who pushed me to clarify a number of points in earlier versions of the text.
Lina Bosbach read every draft and supported the completion of this study in many other ways.
Introduction
Leo Strauss and the Theopolitics of Culture
For the time being, Leo Strauss remains the unlikely case of a first-rate philosopher who has yet to be discovered, despite the enormous amount of scholarship invested in his legacy. Strauss has been studied widely in the fields of political science, intellectual history, and modern Jewish thought, but his philosophical project remains difficult to grasp. This is in part due to the fact that his works do not seem to have a central idea or thesis. Instead, they are exceedingly multilayered, stretching across a variety of fields, epochs, and thematic concerns. Strauss is not only a major reference for the renewal of political philosophy in the twentieth century, he has also had a major impact on the historiography of medieval Jewish philosophy and he has made a partly unexplored contribution to the logic of modern social science. Furthermore, he advocated a largely atypical notion of philosophy, according to which the problem of belief and unbelief is the central issue of philosophical investigation. Last but not least, he sought a way out of the impasse of modernity by consciously “returning” to Platonic philosophizing.
It is difficult to find a single master thesis or a common thematic thread behind these heterogeneous aspects of Strauss’s work. But perhaps there is a recurring conceptual pattern or a critical purpose—or at least a “direction” of philosophical investigation—despite the great variety of concerns? To understand the philosophical project of Leo Strauss, I suggest reading his works with regard to a specific constellation of culture, religion, and the political. In particular, this study carves out Strauss’s largely unknown critique of “culture,” his occupation with a latent culturalism that allegedly holds its grip on modern philosophical thought.
This focus may not be self-evident. His objections to the notion of “culture” initially appear to be rather vague. Moreover, “culture” is not the central theme of Leo Strauss’s writings. It is, however, a theme that leads to and accompanies the central themes. As this study argues, Strauss’s conception of political philosophy was formed in the polemics against the notion of “culture.” The problem had an extraordinary importance for the inner workings of his philosophical endeavor. As he understood the notion, “culture” signified a void in the discourse of twentieth-century philosophy, which has come to be seen in the problematic conjunction of “culture” with religion and the political.
The place where the new philosophical concern came to be most visible is Strauss’s unrecognized masterwork Philosophy and Law (1935), where he introduced the topic into the historiography of Jewish philosophy. In the first chapter—masked as a review essay of Julius Guttmann’s seminal book Philosophies of Judaism (1933)&