You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Ranging from ancient Greek thought to contemporary quantum mechanics, Mastery of Nature investigates to what extent nature can be conquered to further human ends and to what extent such mastery is compatible with human flourishing.
Addressing the central theme of his work—the complex relationship between religion, philosophy, and politics—the twelve newly available transcripts included in Leo Strauss on Religion offer unprecedented insights into Leo Strauss's thoughts on previously unexplored subjects. Essential for both avid readers and newcomers, this collection unveils sharper formulations and frank discussions, providing a rare peek into the ambiguous aspects of Strauss's renowned reticence in formulating his ultimate thoughts. Accompanied by fourteen interpretative essays from distinguished scholars, this volume serves as a comprehensive guide to Strauss's intellectual odyssey. Offering fresh perspectives, these essays navigate the understudied aspects of Strauss's reflections on religion, putting his thought in a new perspective thereby enriching the scholarly debate around the controversial yet influential legacy of Leo Strauss.
The first study of Strausss confrontation with modern science and its methods. Drawing upon a wealth of previously unpublished archival material, Leo Strauss on Science brings to light the thoughts of Leo Strauss on the problem of science. Introducing us to Strausss reflections on the meaning and perplexities of the scientific adventure, Svetozar Y. Minkov explores questions such as: Is there a human wisdom independent of science? What is the relation between poetry and mathematics, or between self-knowledge and theoretical physics? And how necessary is it for the human species to exist immutably in order for the classical analysis of human life to be correct? In pursuing these questions, Minkov aims to change the conversation about Strauss, one of the great thinkers of the past century.
Drawing upon a wealth of previously unpublished archival material, Leo Strauss on Science brings to light the thoughts of Leo Strauss on the problem of science. Introducing us to Strauss's reflections on the meaning and perplexities of the scientific adventure, Svetozar Y. Minkov explores questions such as: Is there a human wisdom independent of science? What is the relation between poetry and mathematics, or between self-knowledge and theoretical physics? And how necessary is it for the human species to exist immutably in order for the classical analysis of human life to be correct? In pursuing these questions, Minkov aims to change the conversation about Strauss, one of the great thinkers of the past century.
Leo Strauss famously asserted that the fundamental, defining debate within Western civilization is that between Jerusalem and Athens, piety and philosophy, the Bible and Plato. And yet, surprisingly, Strauss never published any of his thoughts on Plato’s dialogue on piety, the Euthyphro. This volume presents, for the first time, Strauss’s 1948 notebook on the dialogue, written in preparation for a class at the New School for Social Research. Featuring close analysis and line-by-line commentary, the notebook opens a window onto a philosophic mind in action, as Strauss asks questions of the classic text, jots down observations and formulations, and analyzes very specific terms and argument...
Francis Bacon's 'Inquiry Touching Human Nature' is an engagement at a fundamental level with the political and philosophic thought of one of the founders of modernity, Francis Bacon. Bacon had a comprehensive vision of the human situation. And because he saw the costs or dangers of modern life as clearly as he predicted its achievements and boons, Bacon is a thinker who addresses directly and deeply our own perplexities.
Political societies frequently regard philosophers as potential threats to morality and religion, and those who speak for politics often demand a defense of philosophy. This book will address philosophy as a mode of existence put into question.
This is the first book on the 'effectual truth,' a new kind of truth invented by Machiavelli that led to the invention of scientific method in cause and effect, passed along to philosophic successors, such as Montesquieu 230 years later. High-level thinking in words you can understand.
The role of the fool is to provoke the powerful to question their convictions, preferably while avoiding a beating. Fools accomplish this not by hectoring their audience, but by broaching sensitive topics indirectly, often disguising their message in a joke or a tale. Writers and thinkers throughout history have adopted the fool's approach, and ...
Naive Readings is a collection of nine of Ralph Lerner s essays on an astonishing range of notoriously difficult and complex authors and texts including Benjamin Franklin s secular and his liturgical writings, Jefferson s Summary View, and Abraham Lincoln s various writings on statesmanship before he took office; Bacon s Essayes, Gibbon s writings on Jews, and Tocqueville on Edmund Burke; and finally Judah Halevi s Kuzari, and Maimonides s Guide of the Perplexed. Lerner presents his essays as experiments that challenge our current habits of reading which, especially in the case of such difficult texts, usually involve a hasty dismissal of whatever is deemed irrelevant and superficial. His ai...