Submitted by Ingrid Anderson, Jun 25, 2007 13:09

I have spent years reading Strauss and his contemporaries, and, as a student of Jewish philosophy, have also read Maimonides and some of the other thinkers Strauss concerned himself with. I have to say I so amused by the various intense (and often extremist) reactions to Strauss' work, and I actually think this nysun review is more balanced than much of the secondary lit I read about Strauss. Strauss was a brilliant thinker who took great pains to read--and to think--very carefully. I disagree with many of Strauss' interpretations, but I applaud his methods, absolutely. His criticisms of the Enlightenment--which he criticizes as openly as others criticize religion the marketplace, for exmaple--make folks uncomfortable, because lots of us want to believe in the inherent "truth" or "moral rightness" of something. I think Strauss' point is that all points of view and belief systems are constructed with particular political goals in mind, every philosophy has its politics and every politic has its justifying philosophy. Democracy is not a "truth," but it IS a political agenda with a certain set of political goals. And he is right that not everyone will "get" or even WANT to "get" Aristotle or Spinoza or whatever. So what?? He's right. I have read tons of Strauss, and never once have I found a single word that suggests people who are less intelligent ot less interested have no right to speak up about their experiences at the hands of politicians, etc. I think Kirsch does a great job of finally nailing people who complain that Strauss was a fascist pig. Honestly, I agree with the article that much of the uproar about Strauss has to do with the fact that he is Jewish (and I say this as a non-Jew). Its the old "sneaky Jew wants to run the world" song and dance. I would never day Strauss was a liberal, but I think a lot of his students just did their own thing with Strauss' work. Students have a way of doing that. I think he was far more complicated than most people give he credit for, and I think he was far more concerned with academic integrity than people give him credit for. People can be really paranoid--and the Left loves conspiracy theories. Even the Left are not above mindlessly towing a party line. Which is exactly Strauss' point. And I say THAT as a liberal-to-lefty American.

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