Leo Strauss on a Rainy Day

Rainy, cold days here in southern Australia, so my gardening activities are curtailed. Instead, cosy mornings by the wood heater watching Youtubes of Leo Strauss. Alan Bloom has been thoughtful enough to upload recordings of Strauss's famous lectures on Plato. I haven't heard them before. I've read bits and pieces of Strauss but mainly I know Strauss second-hand: his reputation proceeds him. He is often hailed - or demonized - as the philosophical grand-daddy of the Neocons. He is, in any case, the most influential (and controversial) reader of Plato of modern times.

His lectures are rightly famous. They are brilliant. And, my O my, his arguments are devious. I am particularly struck, just now, by the entire construction of his mode of reading. Strauss claims there is a very particular way in which the Platonic dialogues ought to be read. Here is an important lecture where he asks, 'How are we to understand Socratic irony?' His answer is extraordinary and alarming at the same time. He might be right.

Strauss on Socratic Irony

And here, in the same series, is a brilliant lecture where, in a few simple steps, Strauss completely demolishes the entire epistemological foundation of the modern social sciences. Devastating.

Strauss demolishes the Social Sciences