Leo Strauss Foundation

The 1936 movie The Petrified Forest “That's more than Duke can stand” – Strauss's example of a gangster's weakness for justice (student notes, Montesquieu course, 1954)

In his piece on Plato’s Laches, Seth Benardete quotes Sophocles’ Ajax (Ajax responding to his father as quoted by prophet Calchas): “even a nobody would acquire superiority with the help of the gods” (θεοῖς μὲν κἄν ὁ μηδὲν ὤν ὁμοῦ, κράτος κατακτήσαιτ᾽, Ajax 767). Benardete adds: “‘nobodies’ are ἄνθρωποι (human beings), and they need gods; ἄνδρες (men) do not.” He then cites 1 Corinthians 1:28 (after “the wisdom of the world” has been contrasted with the wisdom of God): καὶ τὰ ἀγενῆ τοῦ κόσμου καὶ τὰ ἐξουθενημένα ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεός, τὰ μὴ ὄντα, ἵνα τὰ ὄντα καταργήσῃ/“God chose the base things of the world and the despised things–and the things that are not–in order to nullify [render inactive] the things that are.” So that there is no boasting before God (1:29).

Strauss exam questions on Spinoza When Stanley Rosen was taking his doctoral examination at Chicago in 1955, Yves Simon set three questions for him (Rosen's dissertation was on Spinoza): 1) The problem of creation in Spinoza. Should the philosophy of Spinoza be described, with no qualification, as pantheistic? 2) Major evidences of Spinoza's influence on modern philosophy. 3)The problem of free choice in the philosophy of Spinoza. Blanckenhagen wrote to Strauss (who was in Switzerland) asking for three additional questions as neither B. nor Otto von Simson felt competent to come up with them. Strauss suggested: 4) What is the relation of Spinoza's doctrine of providence to Maimonides'. State both the points of agreement and the points of difference. State the reasons why Sp. partly agrees and partly differs from M. 5) The traditional definition of substance is "ens per se." Sp. says: quod per se est et per se concipitur. Why does he make this change? ["a being which is by itself and is understood by itself"] 6) Sp. identifies natural right with natural might. How does he arrive from this premise to his liberal-democratic conclusion?

New Strauss! On metaphysics, no less 📖 Even though the St. Augustine volume below is very “completist,” its wide net still missed an admittedly anonymous English-language article by Strauss on metaphysics (in the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia). amazon.com/Strauss-Published…

Strauss on this day 60 years ago "The best condition is the one in which no training is required, that of the disembodied soul, i.e., the condition for which our laziness longs, where we do not have to make any effort" (Plato's Meno, April 21, 1966)

Bloom’s paper (correct date is 1984) archive.org/details/allan-bl… and the beginning of Kolakowski’s response

Here is a picture from the event: Bloom, Bellow, Yehoshua...