Cover of Leo Strauss on Hegel
Leo Strauss on Hegel
by Leo Strauss, edited by Paul Franco
University of Chicago Press, 2019
Cloth: 978-0-226-64068-6 | Paper: 978-0-226-81678-4 | Electronic: 978-0-226-64071-6
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.001.0001

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ABOUT THIS BOOKAUTHOR BIOGRAPHYREVIEWSTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

In the winter of 1965, Leo Strauss taught a seminar on Hegel at the University of Chicago. While Strauss neither considered himself a Hegelian nor wrote about Hegel at any length, his writings contain intriguing references to the philosopher, particularly in connection with his studies of Hobbes, in his debate in On Tyranny with Alexandre Kojève; and in his account of the “three waves” of modern political philosophy.
           
Leo Strauss on Hegel reconstructs Strauss’s seminar on Hegel, supplemented by passages from an earlier version of the seminar from which only fragments of a transcript remain. Strauss focused his seminar on the lectures collected in The Philosophy of History, which he considered more accessible than Hegel’s written works. In his own lectures on Hegel, Strauss continues his project of demonstrating how modern philosophers related to ancient thought and explores the development and weaknesses of modern political theory. Strauss is especially concerned with the relationship in Hegel between empirical history and his philosophy of history, and he argues for the primacy of religion in Hegel’s understanding of history and society. In addition to a relatively complete transcript, Leo Strauss on Hegel also includes annotations, which bring context and clarity to the text.
 

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Leo Strauss (1899–1973) was one of the preeminent political philosophers of the twentieth century. From 1949 to 1968 he was professor of political science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books, among them The Political Philosophy of Hobbes, Natural Right and History, and Spinoza’s Critique of Religion, all published by the University of Chicago Press. Paul Franco is professor of government and chair of the Government and Legal Studies Department at Bowdoin College.

REVIEWS

"On Hegel. . . . Strauss.grants us a more comprehensive insight into Strauss’ mature. . . .view of Hegel’s philosophy than we find elsewhere in his work."
— Max Morris, Phenomenological Reviews

"This work tells us a lot about Strauss's pedagogy and about the need for professors to remain attentive to the brightest thinkers so that we may humbly and rigorously translate their excellence to students."
— Archives de la philosophie (Translated from French)

TABLE OF CONTENTS


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0001
[Strauss;Hegel;history;Kojève;Hobbes;liberalism;totalitarianism;religion]
In this introduction, the editor indicates why this transcript is important, how the understanding of Hegel found in it fits with the understanding of Hegel found in Strauss’s published writings, including on Hobbes, and how it relates to other contemporary interpretations of Hegel, especially Alexandre Kojève’s.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0002
[Hegel;history;Spinoza;Kant;Owl of Minerva]
Strauss explains why one should study Hegel and why he has chosen the Philosophy of History as his text. Essential philosophical background to Hegel: Kant and Spinoza. The Owl of Minerva was a central image in Strauss' analysis.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0003
[Hegel;history;rationality;providence;folk-mind;corruption;passion;spirit]
Strauss discusses Hegel’s initial presentation of the rationality of history in terms of the idea of providence. The nature of spirit. The folk-mind and it’s corruption through the growth of knowledge. Passion as the means by which the goal of history is achieved.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0004
[Hegel;history;immoral means;world-historical individuals;folk-mind;regime;morality]
Strauss discusses Hegel's conception of the progress of history in relation to morality; immoral means by which history progresses; world-historical individuals. Hegel’s idea of the folk-mind compared to the classical notion of the regime.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0005
[Hegel;empirical historical method;philosophy;corruption of folk-mind;America;progress;end of history;rights of man]
Strauss highlights that Hegel’s empirical historical method is based on religion as the fundamental phenomenon. Philosophy is ambiguous in relation to the corruption and restoration of a folk-mind. Hegel's statement that America is the land of the future does not imply infinite progress; there is an end to history. This progress is measured in terms of the recognition of the rights of man.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0006
[Hegel;history;Africa;natural man;religion;Asia;China;substantiality]
Strauss discusses Hegel's treatment of Africa: Africans as natural men; in African religion, man is regarded as the highest but therefore has no dignity. Strauss goes on to discuss the absence of self-consciousness in Asia. The principle of China is substantiality without subjectivity; obedience to custom.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0007
[Hegel;Hinduism;China;India;relativism;political liberty;science;imagination;caste system;rights of man]
Strauss highlights that Hegel’s negative judgments about China and India reveal that he is not a cultural relativist. The basis for Hegel's judgments is the presence or absence of science and political liberty. Chinese religion is substantial, devoid of subjectivity. India is higher than China because of its imaginative character. In India, subjects are independent but limited by caste system; absence of the rights of man. Hindu religion.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0008
[Hegel;Orient;historical continuity;Hinduism;Persian religion;Chinese religion]
Strauss points out that there is a lack of continuity between the Orient and the West. He further elaborates on Hegel's view of Hindu religion; its superiority to Chinese religion. He discusses Hegel's claim that the dualism of Persian religion marks an advance over the static character of both the Chinese and Hindu religions.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0009
[Hegel;Phoenicia;Judaism;Egypt;passion;Adam Smith;totalitarianism;Kojéve;religion;Sphinx]
Strauss examines Hegel's discussion of the industriousness of Phoenicia and the death of God in the form of Adonis. Also Hegel's discussion of the subordination of nature to spirit in Jewish religion; also the exclusiveness and intolerance of Judaism. Unpolitical character of Egypt; totally ordered character of society in opposition to passion. For Hegel, the rational state must incorporate subjective freedom and passion; agreement with Adam Smith in this regard. Hegel is not a totalitarian. Comparison of Hegel with Kojéve on theory and practice. Animal worship in Egyptian religion. Enigma of the Sphinx.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0010
[Hegel;empirical historical method;Greek world;Greek religion;beauty;aesthetics;nature;freedom;beautiful individuality]
Strauss further discusses Hegel’s empirical method. Greek religion as poetry. Greek view of beauty contrasted with Hegel’s view of aesthetics. For Greeks, mind is the highest; Greece is the realm of the human mind. Heterogeneity of Greek population. Greek freedom dependent on nature and therefore more limited than modern freedom; beautiful individuality.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0011
[Hegel;Socrates;conscience;Greek religion;Greek polis;democracy;Montesquieu;subjective freedom]
Strauss discusses Hegel's understanding of the relationship between Socrates and original Greekness. Absence of the notion of conscience among Greeks. Greek religion as the religion of art or beauty. Greeks are not aware that man is by nature free. Democratic character of the Greek polis. Hegel agrees with Montesquieu that the principle of ancient democracy was virtue. Contrast with the modern rational state, which recognizes the right of subjective freedom and does not simply identify the human being with the citizen.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0012
[Hegel;Rome;prosaic;art;Nietzsche;philosophy;corruption;Alexander the Great;legal personality;religion]
Strauss discusses Hegel's contrast of the prosaic character of Rome with the poetic character of Greece. The position of art in Hegel’s system vs. Nietzsche’s. The corruption of Greece through the philosophical questioning of religion. Hegel’s self-contradictory belief that the modern state is based on religion but can also be indifferent to it. Transition from the Greek polis to the empire of Alexander. Rome stifles all vitality and natural feeling. Again, prosaic character of Rome; recognition of legal personality.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0013
[Hegel;Roman Republic;Roman Empire;Cicero;Christianity;religion;modern state]
Strauss discusses Hegel's account of the decline of the Roman Republic. Cicero’s attempt to preserve the Republic based on lack of understanding. The Roman Empire and the reduction of citizens to atomistic private persons. God-forsakenness of Roman Empire paves the way for the emergence of Christianity. Comparison to the Fall of Man, which Hegel, like Kant, sees as a positive development. Faith and reason are not opposed for Hegel; the truth of Christianity is realized in the modern secular state. Again, discord between state’s basis in religion and indifference to it.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0014
[Hegel;philosophy of history;Germanic world;Vico;actualization;Modern state;Owl of Minerva;Weber;Spengler;Kant]
Strauss discusses Hegel's explanation of why the Christian principle came to fruition in the Germanic World. He goes on to give a synoptic account of the idea of the philosophy of history. Emergence of the philosophy of history in Vico’s New Science. History became philosophically relevant because of modern political philosophy’s preoccupation with the actualization of the best regime. Coincidence of the rational and the actual in the modern state. Philosophical comprehension of the rationality of the modern state marks the beginning of its decay: Owl of Minerva. Weber on “disenchantment” and Spengler on the “decline of the West.” Relative unimportance of philosophy of history in Kant.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0015
[Hegel;Middle Ages;Church and state;feudalism;Islam;Charlemagne;Catholicism]
Strauss discusses Hegel's emphasis on the antithesis of Church and state in the Middle Ages. Also: Eastern Europe; feudalism; Islam; the empire of Charlemagne; absence of the rule of law. Problems arising from the absolute separation of the spiritual and the temporal. Hegel’s rejection of the asceticism of the Catholic Church.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0016
[Hegel;Middle Ages;Reformation;Enlightenment;morality;Machiavelli;Crusades;feudalism;monarchy]
Strauss discusses Hegel's understanding of the connection between the Reformation and the Enlightenment. Hegel on morality. The difference between Hegel and Machiavelli. Carnal misunderstanding of Christianity in the Middle Ages; the Crusades. Progress from feudalism to monarchy and the modern nation-state.


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226640716.003.0017
[Hegel;Reformation;Enlightenment;French Revolution;Protestantism;Catholicism;monarchy;democracy]
Strauss discusses the difference between Hegel and the Enlightenment. Also the difference between Hobbes and Hegel with respect to monarchy. Hegel on Catholicism and the modern state. Hegel’s opposition to democracy. Hegel's view of the defect of Protestantism. Hegel’s doctrine of monarchy. Transition from the Reformation to the Enlightenment. The moral and political teaching of the Enlightenment. Hegel on the French Revolution; again, his rejection of democracy.

Book published by University of Chicago Press, 2019. Page maintained by BiblioVault.