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Explores Leo Stauss's understanding of the relation between political philosophy and "philosophy proper" and Seth Benardete's elaboration of their complex and elusive relation.
The most potent critique leveled against Leo Strauss is that he does not possess a philosophic teaching. Even his friends in Catholic circles have argued that he lacks a metaphysics. In Political Philosophy and Philosophy Proper, Joshua Parens explores for the first time and in detail Strauss's understanding of the relation between political philosophy and "philosophy proper." Strauss first alludes to this relation in "Farabi's Plato" (1945). It is not by chance, then, that this relation is the central problem of what he calls "Platonic political philosophy." Although Strauss wrote relatively little directly about "philosophy proper," what he did write and say has been explored most fully by Seth Benardete, the student of Strauss's who devoted the most time and attention to "Platonic political philosophy." The central thesis of this work is that the difference in completability of political philosophy and of philosophy proper means that philosophy proper cannot serve as ground for political philosophy. This book shows that Benardete can add considerably to what we understand from Strauss about the relation between political philosophy and philosophy proper.
"One of the main virtues of Political Philosophy and Philosophy Proper is in its articulation of the relationship between political philosophy and metaphysics or knowledge of the whole. Parens indicates that for Strauss and Benardete, political philosophy is the core of 'philosophy proper' in part because a complete metaphysics is not at our disposal." — Svetozar Minkov, coeditor of Leo Strauss on Religion: Writings and Interpretations
Joshua Parens is Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the University of Dallas. He is author of Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy and Maimonides's "Guide" on Obstacles to Knowledge, Being, and Action.