In this classic analysis, Leo Strauss pinpoints what is original and innovative in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes.

"-- M. J. Silverthorne,The Humanities Association Review Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of ...

For T any completion of Peano Arithmetic and for n any positive integer, there is a model of T of size $\beth_n$ with no (n + 1)-length sequence of indiscernibles. Hence the Hanf number for omitting types over T, H(T), is at least $\beth_\omega$ . (Now, using an upper bound previously obtained by Julia Knight H (true arithmetic) is exactly $\beth_\omega$ ). If T ≠ true arithmetic, then $H(T) = \beth_{\omega1}$ . If $\delta \not\rightarrow (\rho)^{ , then any completion of (...) Peano Arithmetic has a model of size δ with no set of indiscernibles of size ρ. There are similar results for theories strongly resembling Peano Arithmetic, e.g., ZF + V = L. (shrink)

"All political action has . . . in itself a directedness towards knowledge of the good: of the good life, or of the good society. For the good society is the complete political good. If this directedness becomes explicit, if men make it their explicit goal to acquire knowledge of the good life and of the good society, political philosophy emerges. . . . The theme of political philosophy is mankind's great objectives, freedom and government or empire--objectives which are capable (...) of lifting all men beyond their poor selves. Political philosophy is that branch of philosophy which is closest to political life, to non-philosophic life, to human life."--From "What Is Political Philosophy?" What Is Political Philosophy? --a collection of ten essays and lectures and sixteen book reviews written between 1943 and 1957--contains some of Leo Strauss's most famous writings and some of his most explicit statements of the themes that made him famous. The title essay records Strauss's sole extended articulation of the meaning of political philosophy itself. Other essays discuss the relation of political philosophy to history, give an account of the political philosophy of the non-Christian Middle Ages and of classic European modernity, and present his theory of esoteric writing. (shrink)

One of the outstanding thinkers of our time offers in this book his final words to posterity. Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy was well underway at the time of Leo Strauss's death in 1973.

On Tyranny is Leo Strauss’s classic reading of Xenophon’s dialogue Hiero, or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny. Included are a translation of the dialogue from its original Greek, a critique of Strauss’s commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, and the complete correspondence between the two. This revised and expanded edition introduces important corrections throughout and expands Strauss’s restatement of his position in light of Kojève’s commentary to (...) bring it into conformity with the text as it was originally published in France. (shrink)

Why do many societies moralize apparently harmless pleasures, such as lust, gluttony, alcohol, drugs, and even music and dance? Why do they erect temperance, asceticism, sobriety, modesty, and piety as cardinal moral virtues? According to existing theories, this puritanical morality cannot be reduced to concerns for harm and fairness: It must emerge from cognitive systems that did not evolve for cooperation (e.g., disgust-based “purity” concerns). Here, we argue that, despite appearances, puritanical morality is no exception to the cooperative function of (...) moral cognition. It emerges in response to a key feature of cooperation, namely that cooperation is (ultimately) a long-term strategy, requiring (proximately) the self-control of appetites for immediate gratification. Puritanical moralizations condemn behaviors which, although inherently harmless, are perceived as indirectly facilitating uncooperative behaviors, by impairing the self-control required to refrain from cheating. Drinking, drugs, immodest clothing, and unruly music and dance are condemned as stimulating short-term impulses, thus facilitating uncooperative behaviors (e.g., violence, adultery, free-riding). Overindulgence in harmless bodily pleasures (e.g., masturbation, gluttony) is perceived as making people slave to their urges, thus altering abilities to resist future antisocial temptations. Daily self-discipline, ascetic temperance, and pious ritual observance are perceived as cultivating the self-control required to honor prosocial obligations. We review psychological, historical, and ethnographic evidence supporting this account. We use this theory to explain the fall of puritanism in western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies, and discuss the cultural evolution of puritanical norms. Explaining puritanical norms does not require adding mechanisms unrelated to cooperation in our models of the moral mind. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Mimesis, Violence, and Socially Engaged Buddhism: Overture to a Dialogue Leo D. Lefebure University ofSaint Mary ofthe Lake René Girard's analysis ofdesire, mimetic rivalry, and the surrogate victim mechanism seeks to transform human consciousness in order to overcome seemingly intractable patterns ofrivalry and violence. In this project the Buddhist tradition, with its long commitment to nonviolence, its age-old suspicion of ordinary views of the self, and its ancient experience (...) of meditation as a transformative practice, exerts a claim to attention. The Buddhist tradition shares many of Girard's concerns: It denies the reality ofan autonomous, independent selfand calls attention to the interdependence ofall realities. It challenges its followers to become conscious ofthe sources oftheir own feelings and thoughts, to accept responsibility for them, and to be liberated from violence. Like Girard, Buddhism rejects the notion that there can be "good violence" as well as bad. For Buddhists, awakening from the illusions of the autonomous selfand freedom from violence are inseparable. The term, "Socially Engaged Buddhism," refers to a variety ofBuddhist move-ments since the 1950s which seek to apply ancient Buddhist principles to contemporary social, economic, and political problems. Powerful prejudices, however, threaten this conversation before it begins. Since the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer and Max Weber, Westerners have often seen Buddhism as a pessimistic religion, a worldnegating tradition that encourages the individual to withdraw from the world and seek a solitary salvation. The belief in karma has often been 122Leo D. Lefebure interpreted as fatalistic and inimical to social transformation. Buddhism, especially in the Mahayana traditions, has often accommodated to the dominant powers in society without exerting any effective social or political critique. Like every other major religious tradition, Buddhism has had an ambiguous history; and Westerners have often assumed prematurely that Buddhism has no history of social and political engagement whatsoever. Girard himself, in conversation with Jean-Claude Dussault in 1981, viewed Buddhism as a withdrawal from action in the world. Girard commented: Alors il me semble que la non-violence des religions orientales est la recherche d'une position hors de la violence, nirvana, etc., au prix de toute action. Mais cette recherche abandonne le monde en quelque sorte à lui-même. Alors il me semble que s'il fallait résumer d'un mot, ce serait un mot comme dégagement absolu par rapport à l'existence. ("Séminaire de recherche" 81) [It seems to me that the nonviolence of Eastern religions is the search for a position outside of violence, nirvana, etc., at the price ofall action. But this search abandons the world in a way to itself. Now it seems to me that if it were necessary to sum it up in a formula, it would be a phrase such as absolute détachement in regard to existence.] Later in the conversation, Girard expressed his own negative reaction: "Si vous voulez, je me sens profondément gréco-biblico-occidental face à ce renoncement nirvanesque total." (83) [If you please, I feel myself profoundly greco-biblical-occidental in contrast to this complete nirvanesque renunciation.] According to Girard's interpretation, Buddhism offers no constructive solution to the social problems ofrivalry and violence, but only an individual escape through withdrawal. Closely related to Girard's negative view ofBuddhism is his interpretation ofall non-biblical religions as channeling violence but as powerless to break the cycle ofviolence. He claims that only biblical revelation offers a basis for overcoming the violence of the surrogate victim mechanism: "To recognize Christ as God is to recognize him as the only being capable of rising above the violence that had, up to that point, absolutely transcended mankind. Violence is the controlling agent in every form ofmythic or cultural structure, and Christ is the only agent who is capable of escaping from these structures and freeing us from their dominance" (1987, Mimesis, Violence, and Socially Engaged Buddhism 123 219). Girard asserts that there is no common ground between the violenceridden mythologies which dominate all other religions and the revelation of God in Christianity (1986, 166). Girard is almost Barthian in his exclusivistic claims for Christian revelation, viewing all other religions as products of human mimetic striving and only Christianity as the true... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:SBCS Members Travel to TaiwanLeo D. LefebureIn February and March 2024, Kunihiko Terasawa and I visited Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei and Buddhist monasteries in Taiwan. On February 29, Kuni gave a very engaging presentation on the thought of Kitaro Nishida, and we had a lively discussion of Nishida's contributions and his relation to Japanese nationalism, followed by lunch with members of the faculty of Fu Jen. The (...) next day, Professor Su-an Lin, who teaches Buddhism at Fu Jen, and graduate student Su-chen Huang accompanied Kuni and me to Fo Guang Shan Monastery, where we received an informative tour of the monastic community, a delicious lunch, and then a guided tour of the Buddha Museum, including the remarkable exhibit on the discoveries at Dunhuang, including full-scale replicas of the statues and murals in the Mogao Caves. To conclude our visit, we were treated to tea and were given Lewis Lancaster's book on The Buddhist Maritime Silk Road and a book of Buddhist meditations for each day of the year.On March 3, we received a guided visit to the Museum of World Religions in Taipei, founded by Dharma Master Hsin Tao. Two days later, together with Paulin Batairwa, Under-Secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, and Raphael Ling, vice president of Fu Jen University for mission and chaplaincy, I visited Master Hsin Tao at his monastery, situated on a high spot dramatically overlooking the ocean. We had an extended discussion of interreligious activities, and the Dharma Master told us of his project to found a Buddhist university in Myanmar and sought our support. On March 5, Paulin, Raphael, and I visited Dharma Drum Mountain Monastery outside of Taipei, where we were graciously welcomed by the Ven. Guo Hei, who gave us copies of books by their founder, the late Chan Master Sheng-yen.I delivered two lectures at Fu Jen; our SBCS colleague Jonathan Seitz, who teaches in Taipei, came to meet me for lunch and attended my second lecture on spirit, law, and wisdom in interreligious encounters. Together with Paulin, I also met with leaders of the Daoist Temple in Taipei and participated in a Vatican-led discussion of Catholic–Confucian relations. [End Page 239]Leo D. LefebureSBCS Past PresidentCopyright © 2024 University of Hawai'i Press... (shrink)

Leo Strauss's Philosophy and Law contains a groundbreaking study of the political philosophy of Maimonides and his Islamic predecessors, and it offers an argument on behalf of that philosophy which is also a profound critique of modern philosophy. Here is an entirely new and complete English translation of Strauss's work, which takes as its ideal the exacting standards of accuracy that Strauss himself emphasized in his own work. It includes a prefatory essay introducing the argument of each of the four (...) sections of Philosophy and Law. This is a fresh and challenging treatment of the perennial conflict between reason and revelation, or philosophy and religion. Strauss's key contention in this book is that the most influential modern approaches to this conflict have run aground in ways that reflect their loss of key insights developed by the medieval philosophers of Islam and their Jewish pupils, especially Maimonides. Strauss challenges the modern view that scientific enlightenment must ultimately amount to atheism, and that therefore there can be no such thing as enlightened religion. Through a careful, original, and detailed treatment of central works of the medieval Islamic-Jewish tradition, especially Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, Strauss aims to recover their key insights into this question. (shrink)

The arma virumque theme that this article identifies in the Punica is an important avenue through which to understand the meaning of Silius Italicus’ poem and its author’s relationship with Vergil. The text frequently uses combinations of the Aeneid ’s first two words, arma and vir, to suggest a common literary inheritance from Aeneas among its characters, large and small, Roman and Carthaginian. By pervasively characterizing most participants in the Second Punic War as versions, or poetic refractions, of Aeneas, the (...) poet recasts Rome’s glorious foreign war as a kind of civil war producing criminal corpses. More specifically, characters vie not for national dominance of the Mediterranean but for personal prestige as the most worthy heir to Aeneas. This process reconsiders the Republic’s history, aligns the text with the developments of 69 c.e., and comments critically on the Roman principate and its foundational literary text, the Aeneid. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Wrestling with GodLeo D. LefebureWrestling with God. By Paul O. Ingram. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2006. 116 + xii pp.Paul Ingram of Pacific Lutheran University is a long-time veteran of Buddhist-Christian dialogue and a generous contributor to the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. His earlier book, Wrestling with the Ox, took the famous Zen ox herding pictures as an entry point for reflecting on the transformation of identity that (...) can take place in Buddhist-Christian relations. The present book opens with the image of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32 as a launching point for exploring religious diversity in a world ever more shaped by natural science. Ingram's thesis is that "Christianity is now in a process of decay and that dialogue with the world's religions—especially Buddhism—and Christian dialogue with the natural sciences are the two most important intellectual foci for thinking Christians" (p. x).Relating his position to that of John Hick while questioning Hick's Kantian epistemology, Ingram proposes a pluralistic evaluation of the world's religious traditions—or at least some forms of them. Ingram seeks to be deeply rooted in the Christian tradition while being open to the legitimate variety of other religions. Nonetheless, Ingram has rather harsh words to say about "legalists and fundamentalists" without ever offering a precise definition of who is included in these terms. He describes fundamentalists in all religious traditions as "trapped in the conventional categories of their ideologies" (p. 21), but what counts as "conventional categories" or as "ideologies" is never fully clarified.Ingram rejects any tradition's claim to have "the final or the exclusive or the inclusive Word about God" because this would be a form of idolatry, which Muslims call shirk (p. 19). Ingram's position would appear to condemn a very wide spectrum, including traditional Christians and Muslims who believe that their respective scriptures express God's final revelation. Such a grouping would appear to be far broader than those conventionally labeled "fundamentalist." For example, Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum) expresses the traditional Catholic belief that Jesus Christ is the center of revelation and no further public revelation is to be expected before his Second Coming; the constitution also accepts historical criticism of the Bible and thus does not fit the usual model of "fundamentalism." Because "fundamentalist" is frequently not a contemporary form of self-designation, it would be helpful to have more specific guidance on how Ingram wishes to apply the term, especially to contexts that are not Christian. If all those who firmly hold traditional doctrinal views are included under this umbrella, Ingram's pluralistic thesis presents itself as firmly rejecting a considerable range of the world's religious traditions.Citing Alfred North Whitehead and contemporary physics, Ingram finds plurality and interdependence to be at the heart of all forms of existence, "from sub-atomic [End Page 201] particles to religious traditions to God" (p. 20). This is a clear rejection of the Muslim doctrine of tawhid, the radical oneness of God, which for Muslims excludes any notion of Trinity or plurality or interdependence in God. Even though Ingram clearly intends to include Islam among the community of acceptable religions, central Muslim beliefs in the oneness of God and the finality of the Qur'an appear to be unacceptable to his position.If we ask about the criteria for distinguishing acceptable and unacceptable forms of religion, much in Ingram's discussion seems to turn on intuition and emotion. He tells us that the basis for a person belonging to one religious tradition rather than another is not rational argument; rather, "It all depends on what or who 'speaks' to you" (p. 31). While admiring a wide range of religious leaders, Ingram admits, "I don't 'experience' them. They don't 'speak' to me" (p. 31). Ingram acknowledges that his difficulty with fundamentalist Christians is strongly emotional: "Whenever I listen to fundamentalist Christians describe Jesus as a kind of best buddy, I feel a little creepy" (p. 32). Ingram is distrustful of claims of reason regarding religion: "You find yourself in a state of faith, that is you 'get... (shrink)

The present volume contains articles of well-known representatives of the Meaning-Text Theory (MTT) and other related linguistic theories. Founded by I. Mel'cuk and A. Zholkovsky in the sixties in Moscow, MTT soon became known in the West as a “prominent outsider” theory. The picture changed since then, though. MTT gained importance in several areas of linguistics and computational linguistics. It influenced the design of new grammar formalisms such as Dependency Tree Grammars. Also, specific parts of MTT have been directly overtaken (...) into other theories; consider, for example, the work on integrating Lexical Functions into Pustejovsky's Generative Lexicon. The present volume is a further convincing demonstration of MTT's liveliness and relevance to the field's “burning” issues. The focus of the volume is on semantics, semantic representation and relation of semantics to surface in MTT. Six out of eight articles (Polguère; Escalier & Fournier; Paducheva; St.-Germain; Beck; Bogulavsky) deal with problems related to these topics, while the last two articles of the volume (Sgall and Rambow; Joshi) throw a bridge between MTT, or, more precisely, between dependency-based theories of which MTT is one instantiation, and other linguistic theories. (shrink)

Living well was the best revenge for Leo Stein, the art critic who took to heart Samuel Johnson’s dictum, “Clear your mind of cant.” Leo shared with his sister, Gertrude Stein, the Paris apartment that became a meeting place for the famous. Reflected in Appreciation: Painting, Poetry and Prose are their early years as American expatriates as well as their later estrangement. This book, originally published in 1947, the year Leo died, includes his reminiscences and estimates of Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, (...) and Renoir, among others, as well as his considered views on the place of art and literature in everyday life. (shrink)

Cet article étudie l'aspect sociologique des recherches de Lefebvres des Noëttes, plus particulièrement son ouvrage : „L'attelage. Le cheval de selle à travers les âges“. Comme le sous-titre de cet ouvrage („Contribution à Thistoire de l'esclavage“) l'indique déjà, le savant français y étudie la technique de l'attelage des animaux de trait. Il tend à démontrer que ce fut l'insuffisance de ces derniers, phénomène resté inchangé jusqu'au vu® siècle de l'ère chrétienne, qui joua un rôle principal dans le maintien de l'esclavage. (...) Les travaux les plus pénibles, le transport des grosses charges en particulier, qui furent accomplis plus tard par les animaux et qui le sont aujourd'hui essentiellement par des moyens mécaniques, ne pouvaient en effet être exécutés à cette époque qu'en recourant au travail forcé, élément caractéristique de l'esclavage. L'histoire nous montre qu'il existe un rapport direct entre l'ampleur des réalisations de l'homme, tout particulièrement des constructions et des routes, et la rigueur avec laquelle on traitait les êtres privés de liberté. Même dans les temps modernes, l'institution de l'esclavage réapparaît, sous une forme ou sous une autre, partout où la force animale est insuffisante (plantations en Amérique du Sud, portage en Afrique centrale). La question de l'esclavage peut donc aujourd'hui être traitée comme une branche de 1' „histoire critique de la technique“, comme un chapitre de la grande controverse entre l'homme et la nature, retirant ainsi tout fondement aux vagues explications politiques ou morales concernant l'origine et le déclin de l'esclavage.This essay deals with the sociological significance of Lefebvres des Noettes' researches, in particular with his work „Harnessing. The Saddle- Horse throughout the Ages“. As the sub-title of his book „Contribution to the History of Slavery“ indicates, the French scholar studies the technical art of harnessing draught-animals, and endeavours to show how its inadequacy, which remained unchanged right into the seventh century A. D. was an essential condition for the maintenance of slavery. For the heavy labour-tasks, above all the transport of huge loads, which later were based on animal-power and to-day are largely accomplished by mechanised locomotion, were then only to be achieved by man-power, by the use of force, as exemplified in slavery. In history there obtains a direct relationship between the extent of cultural achievements, shown especially in buildings and roads, and the severity in the treatment of slaves. Wherever in more recent times, there was not at hand, an extensive draught-animal apparatus, there arose, in some form or other, the institution of slavery (plantations in South America, porters in Central Africa). Such an interpretation makes it possible to consider the question of slavery, as a part of the „critical history of technology“, and as a chapter in the struggle of man against nature. In this way, vague political or moral explanations of the rise and fall of slavery lose all their force. (shrink)

Die Quellen der Aristoteles-Rezeption bzw. der aristotelischen Logik im byzantinischen Mittelalter sind nur teilweise oder gering erforscht. Eine der wichtigen Autoritäten dieser Tradition stellt Leon Magentenos (12. Jh.?) dar. Magentenos war Metropolit von Mytilene sowie ein Gelehrter, der Kommentare zu allen sechs Traktaten des aristotelischen Organon (Categoriae, De Interpretatione, Analytica Priora, Analytica Posteriora, Topica, Sophistici Elenchi) verfasst hat. Hier wird die kritische Edition des Kommentars zum zweiten Buch der Ersten Analytik zusammen mit seiner Übersetzung ins Englische vorgelegt. Untersucht werden auch (...) die dem Kommentar angehängten syllogistischen Diagramme. Kommentare zu Analytica Priora II nach der Spätantike und vor Magentenos waren eher eine Rarität, daher ist sein Kommentar eine wichtige Quelle für alle Forscher, die sich mit der Geschichte der byzantinischen Logik und der aristotelischen Kommentierung befassen. (shrink)

What does it mean for theory to be considered as a species of not just "literature" but "world" literature? These essays offer accounts of how the "worlding" of literature both problematizes the national categorizing of theory (e.g., French theory) and brings new meanings and challenges to the coming together of theory and literature. In sum, they offer Theory as World Literature as a viable alternative to more commonplace approaches to theory. By approaching theory from a perspective more attuned toward the (...) complexity and precarity of the world, this volume acknowledges that theory is more worldly now than ever. (shrink)

Leo Bersani’s career spans more than fifty years and extends across a wide spectrum of fields—including French studies, modernism, realist fiction, psychoanalytic criticism, film studies, and queer theory. Throughout this new collection of essays that ranges, interestingly and brilliantly, from movies by Claire Denis and Jean-Luc Godard to fiction by Proust and Pierre Bergounioux, Bersani considers various kinds of connectedness. _Thoughts and Things_ posits what would appear to be an irreducible gap between our thoughts and things. Bersani departs from his (...) psychoanalytic convictions to speculate on the oneness of being—of our intrinsic connectedness to the other that is at once external and internal to us. He addresses the problem of formulating ways to consider the undivided mind, drawing on various sources, from Descartes to cosmology, Freud, and Genet and succeeds brilliantly in diagramming new forms as well as radical failures of connectedness. Ambitious, original, and eloquent, _Thoughts and Things_ will be of interest to scholars in philosophy, film, literature, and beyond. (shrink)

In the summer of 1886, shortly before his fifty-eighth birthday, Leo Tolstoy was seriously injured while working in the fields of his estate. Bedridden for over two months, Tolstoy began writing a meditation on death and dying that soon developed into a philosophical treatise on life, death, love, and the overcoming of pessimism. Although begun as an account of how one man encounters and laments his death and makes this death his own, the final work, On Life, describes the optimal (...) life in which we can all be happy despite our mortality. After its completion, On Life was suppressed by the tsars, attacked by the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, and then censored by the Stalinist regime. This critical edition is the first accurate translation of this unsung classic of Russian thought into English, based on a study of manuscript pages of Tolstoy's drafts, and the first scholarly edition of this work in any language. It includes a detailed introduction and annotations, as well as historical material, such as early drafts, documents related to the presentation of an early version at the Moscow Psychological Society, and responses to the work by philosophers, religious leaders, journalists, and ordinary readers of Tolstoy's day. (shrink)

In this article, I examine some traditional Indian conceptions of unconscious mental activity. There are concepts in the Indian philosophical tradition, notably saskāras and vāsanās, which can be taken to refer to unconscious mental states and dispositions. My discussion, which is essentially philosophical by nature, is loosely based on the English philosopher C.D. Broad's distinctions concerning the unconscious. Saskāras, which are interpreted realistically in Indian tradition, may manifest themselves as what I (and Broad) call relatively unconscious states. Evidence for this (...) interpretation can be found in discussions concerning the nature of dream state and the supernatural powers of yogis in Indian tradition. It is interesting to try to view the retributive system of karma as an absolutely unconscious system, but this is not a plausible interpretation of the Indian view of karma. (shrink)