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Leibniz' Doctrine of Necessary Truth (Routledge Library Editions: 17th Century Philosophy)
by Margaret Dauler WilsonOriginally published in 1990. This study was first written in 1965 when interest in Leibniz was intensifying. The book looks in detail at the doctrine of necessity – that necessary truths are those derivable from the principle of identity by the substitution of definitions. It first considers views of philosophic predecessors, relating Leibniz’ doctrine to Aristotle and Hobbes among others. The second section examines the conflict between his reductionistic and formalistic views and the opposing intuitionism and anti-reductionism of Descartes and Locke. The author critically examines the theory of necessity, including Leibniz’s arguments against the views of Hobbes and Locke, concluding with distinctions between necessary and contingent truths.
Leibniz, Husserl, and the Brain
by Norman SierokaThis book is about structural relations between phenomenological and neurophysiological aspects of consciousness and time. Focusing on auditory perception and making new and updated use of Leibniz and Husserl, it investigates the transition from unconscious to conscious states, especially with regard to the constitution of phenomenal time.
Leibniz on Binary: The Invention of Computer Arithmetic
by Lloyd Strickland Harry R. LewisThe first collection of Leibniz&’s key writings on the binary system, newly translated, with many previously unpublished in any language.The polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) is known for his independent invention of the calculus in 1675. Another major—although less studied—mathematical contribution by Leibniz is his invention of binary arithmetic, the representational basis for today&’s digital computing. This book offers the first collection of Leibniz&’s most important writings on the binary system, all newly translated by the authors with many previously unpublished in any language. Taken together, these thirty-two texts tell the story of binary as Leibniz conceived it, from his first youthful writings on the subject to the mature development and publication of the binary system. As befits a scholarly edition, Strickland and Lewis have not only returned to Leibniz&’s original manuscripts in preparing their translations, but also provided full critical apparatus. In addition to extensive annotations, each text is accompanied by a detailed introductory &“headnote&” that explains the context and content. Additional mathematical commentaries offer readers deep dives into Leibniz&’s mathematical thinking. The texts are prefaced by a lengthy and detailed introductory essay, in which Strickland and Lewis trace Leibniz&’s development of binary, place it in its historical context, and chart its posthumous influence, most notably on shaping our own computer age.
Leibniz on Causation and Agency
by Julia JoratiThis book presents a comprehensive examination of Gottfried Leibniz's views on the nature of agents and their actions. Julia Jorati offers a fresh look at controversial topics including Leibniz's doctrines of teleology, the causation of spontaneous changes within substances, divine concurrence, freedom, and contingency, and also discusses widely neglected issues such as his theories of moral responsibility, control, attributability, and compulsion. Rather than focusing exclusively on human agency, she explores the activities of non-rational substances and the differences between distinctive types of actions, showing how the will, appetitions, and teleology are key to Leibniz's discussions of agency. Her book reveals that Leibniz has a nuanced and compelling philosophy of action which has relevance for present-day discussions of agency. It will be of interest to scholars and students of early modern philosophy as well as to metaphysicians and philosophers of action.
Leibniz on Compossibility and Possible Worlds
by Gregory Brown Yual ChiekThis volume brings together a number of original articles by leading Leibniz scholars to address the meaning and significance of Leibniz's notions of compossibility and possible worlds. In order to avoid the conclusion that everything that exists is necessary, or that all possibles are actual, as Spinoza held, Leibniz argued that not all possible substances are compossible, that is, capable of coexisting. In Leibniz's view, the compossibility relation divides all possible substances into disjoint sets, each of which constitutes a possible world, or a way that God might have created things. For Leibniz, then, it is the compossibility relation that individuates possible worlds; and possible worlds form the objects of God's choice, from among which he chooses the best for creation. Thus the notions of compossibility and possible worlds are of major significance for Leibniz's metaphysics, his theodicy, and, ultimately, for his ethics. Given the fact, however, that none of the approaches to understanding Leibniz's notions of compossibility and possible words suggested to date have gained universal acceptance, the goal of this book is to gather a body of new papers that explore ways of either refining previous interpretations in light of the objections that have been raised against them, or ways of framing new interpretations that will contribute to a fresh understanding of these key notions in Leibniz's thought.
Leibniz on Freedom and Determinism in Relation to Aquinas and Molina (Routledge Revivals)
by Didier Njirayamanda KaphagawaniFirst published in 1999, this volume considers the 17th century philosopher Leibniz and his views on Freedom and Determinism, aiming to show that his solution is in many respects superior to those of Aquinias and Molina. The author thoroughly explores Leibniz in the light of Aquinas and Molina, first examining their positions on freedom and determinism, followed by Leibniz on freedom, contingency and determinism, the denial of freedom of pure indifference, freedom and divine foreknowledge and major interpretations of his philosophy.
Leibniz und die moderne Naturwissenschaft (Wissenschaft und Philosophie – Science and Philosophy – Sciences et Philosophie)
by Jürgen JostWas hat ein Gelehrter des 17.Jahrhunderts noch für die heutigen Naturwissenschaften zu sagen? Eine ganze Menge, so zeigt sich in diesem Buch. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) war ein Universalgenie, und ihm gelangen bahnbrechende Leistungen in fast allen Gebieten der Wissenschaft, insbesondere in der Philosophie (Relativität von Raum und Zeit), der Mathematik (Infinitesimalrechnung, Determinantentheorie, binäres Zahlsystem, Konstruktion einer Rechenmaschine), der Logik (Prädikaten- und Modallogik, Konzept der möglichen Welten), der Physik (Energieerhaltung und Aktionsprinzip), der Erd- und Menschheitsgeschichte, der Rechtswissenschaft und der Theologie. Diese Leistungen waren aber nicht isoliert, sondern eingebettet in ein umfassendes System, das auf dem Satz vom Widerspruch, dem Satz vom zureichenden Grunde und dem Kontinuitätsprinzip beruhte. Erst durch das Verständnis dieses Systems erschließen sich die Einheit und die Spannweite seines Denkens. Jürgen Jost, der wie nur wenige andere die verschiedenen Wissenschaften überblickt, konfrontiert dieses leibnizsche System mit den Ansätzen, Denkweisen und Ergebnissen der heutigen Naturwissenschaften, insbesondere der Quantenphysik, der Relativitätstheorie und Kosmologie, der modernen Logik, der Evolutionsbiologie und der Hirnforschung. Es zeigt sich, dass das leibnizsche System in vieler Hinsicht noch aktuell ist und sich bewährt, aber auch in manchen Positionen revidiert werden muss. Hieraus ergeben sich neue Einsichten sowohl in das leibnizsche System als auch in die heutigen Naturwissenschaften.
Leibnizing: A Philosopher in Motion (Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts)
by Richard HalpernWhy read Leibniz today? Can we still learn from him and not just about him? This book argues that Leibniz offers a powerful, productive model for transdisciplinary thinking that can push back against the narrowness of the humanities today.Richard Halpern recasts Leibniz as a great writer as well as a great philosopher, demonstrating that his philosophical project cannot be fully understood without taking its literary elements into account. He shows Leibniz to be a prescient thinker about art and beauty whose insights into the relationship between aesthetic experience and thought remain invaluable. Leibnizing asks readers to follow the dynamic movement of Leibniz’s writing instead of attempting to grasp a static philosophical system and to pay careful attention to the rhetorical and stylistic registers of Leibniz’s work as well as its conceptual and logical dimensions.For philosophers, this book offers a novel approach to reading and interpreting Leibniz. For literary and other theorists, it showcases the relevance of Leibniz’s thought to areas from aesthetics to politics and from metaphysics to computer science. Written in a lucid and even witty style, Leibnizing provides readers with an accessible entryway into Leibniz’s sometimes forbidding but ultimately rewarding philosophical vision.
Leibniz's Final System: Monads, Matter, and Animals (Routledge Studies in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy)
by Glenn A. HartzGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was one of the central figures of seventeenth-century philosophy, and a huge intellectual figure in his age. This book from Glenn A. Hartz (editor of the influential Leibniz Review) is an advanced study of Leibniz's metaphysics. Hartz analyzes a very complicated topic, widely discussed in contemporary commentaries on Leibniz, namely the question of whether Leibniz was a metaphysical idealist, realist, or whether he tried to reconcile both trends in his mature philosophy. Because Leibniz is notoriously unclear about this, much has been written on the subject. In recent years, the debate has centered on whether it is possible to maintain compatibility between the two trends. In this controversial book, Hartz demonstrates that it is not possible to maintain compatibility of idealist and realist views - they must be understood as completely separate theories. As the first major work on realism in Leibniz's metaphysics, this key text will interest international Leibniz scholars, as well as students at the graduate level.
Leibniz’s Legacy and Impact (Routledge Studies in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy)
by Julia Weckend Lloyd StricklandThis volume tells the story of the legacy and impact of the great German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Leibniz made significant contributions to many areas, including philosophy, mathematics, political and social theory, theology, and various sciences. The essays in this volume explores the effects of Leibniz’s profound insights on subsequent generations of thinkers by tracing the ways in which his ideas have been defended and developed in the three centuries since his death. Each of the 11 essays is concerned with Leibniz’s legacy and impact in a particular area, and between them they show not just the depth of Leibniz’s talents but also the extent to which he shaped the various domains to which he contributed, and in some cases continues to shape them today. With essays written by experts such as Nicholas Jolley, Pauline Phemister, and Philip Beeley, this volume is essential reading not just for students of Leibniz but also for those who wish to understand the game-changing impact made by one of history’s true universal geniuses.
Leibniz's Metaphysics and Adoption of Substantial Forms
by Adrian NitaThis anthology is about the signal change in Leibniz's metaphysics with his explicit adoption of substantial forms in 1678-79. This change can either be seen as a moment of discontinuity with his metaphysics of maturity or as a moment of continuity, such as a passage to the metaphysics from his last years. Between the end of his sejour at Paris (November 1676) and the first part of the Hanover period, Leibniz reformed his dynamics and began to use the theory of corporeal substance. This book explores a very important part of the philosophical work of the young Leibniz. Expertise from around the globe is collated here, including Daniel Garber's work based on the recent publication of Leibniz's correspondence from the late 1690s, examining how the theory of monads developed during these crucial years. Richard Arthur argues that the introduction of substantial forms, reinterpreted as enduring primitive forces of action in each corporeal substance, allows Leibniz to found the reality of the phenomena of motion in force and thus avoid reducing motion to a mere appearance. Amongst other themes covered in this book, Pauline Phemister's paper investigates Leibniz's views on animals and plants, highlighting changes, modifications and elaborations over time of Leibniz's views and supporting arguments and paying particular attention to his claim that the future is already contained in the seeds of living things. The editor, Adrian Nita, contributes a paper on the continuity or discontinuity of Leibniz's work on the question of the unity and identity of substance from the perspective of the relation with soul (anima) and mind (mens).
Leiden und Lebenskunst: Biographisch-philosophische Studien zu Krisen, Therapien und Wandlungen (Schriften zur Kritischen Lebenskunst)
by Günter Gödde Jörg Zirfas Eike BrockIndividuelle Überlegungen zur Lebenskunst bieten Orientierungen und Strategien im Umgang mit Krisenerfahrungen in prekären Zeiten. Wer Studien zu Krankheiten und Leidenserfahrungen, Therapien und Wandlungen betreibt, der verschränkt mithin die Lebenskunstmodelle mit den Biographien bedeutender Persönlichkeiten und verdeutlicht damit, wie wichtig der biographische Entstehungskontext für die Modelle ist. Den zentralen Gesichtspunkt bildet dabei die explizite oder implizite Innenperspektive auf die Lebenskunst, auf die mit ihr verbundenen Kategorien und Prozesse, Organisationsformen und Institutionalisierungen und damit auf die Wandlungen und Strukturen ihrer Theorien und Praktiken eines gelungenen Lebens, auf die Erzeugung von Sinn und Glück, den Aufbau von Identität und den Umgang mit den anderen und der Welt. Die hier präsentierte Auswahl an bedeutenden Autorinnen und Autoren der Moderne – von Michel de Montaigne bis Martha Nussbaum – belegt, dass der Ausgangspunkt für Überlegungen zur Lebenskunst in ihren körperlichen, psychischen, sozialen oder kulturellen Krisen bzw. „Krankheiten“ oder Leidenserfahrungen besteht, die wiederum spezifische Lebenskünste zur Folge haben.
Leistung, Differenz und Inklusion: Eine rekonstruktive Analyse professionalisierter Unterrichtspraxis
by Benjamin WagenerWährend der Zusammenhang von sozialer Ungleichheit und schulischem Leistungsprinzip durchaus im Fokus empirischer Forschung steht, stellt die Analyse des Herstellungsprozesses von Differenz und Ungleichheit im Vollzug von Unterricht nach wie vor ein Desiderat dar. Der Zugang zur Unterrichtspraxis setzt wiederum ein komplexes methodisches Vorgehen voraus. Anhand von Unterrichtsvideographien rekonstruiert der Autor unterschiedliche Praxen leistungsbezogener Differenzkonstruktionen in Gymnasien und in Sekundarschulen mit einer inklusiven Programmatik. Die empirischen Ergebnisse, die in der Tendenz auf schulform- und fachspezifische Unterschiede verweisen, reflektiert er im Hinblick auf Professionalisierung in praxeologischer Perspektive sowie mit Bezug auf den aktuellen Diskurs um schulische Inklusion.
Leisure: The Basis of Culture and The Philosophical Act
by Josef Pieper"One of the most important philosophy titles published in the twentieth century, Josef Pieper's Leisure, the Basis of Culture is more significant, even more crucial, today than it was when it first appeared more than fifty years ago. This special new edition now also includes his little work The Philosophical Act. Leisure is an attitude of the mind and a condition of the soul that fosters a capacity to perceive the reality of the world. Pieper shows that the Greeks and medieval Europeans, understood the great value and importance of leisure. He also points out that religion can be born only in leisure - a leisure that allows time for the contemplation of the nature of God. Leisure has been, and always will be, the first foundation of any culture. Pieper maintains that our bourgeois world of total labor has vanquished leisure, and issues a startling warning: Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for non-activity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture - and ourselves. "Pieper's message for us is plain. . . . The idolatry of the machine, the worship of mindless know-how, the infantile cult of youth and the common mind - all this points to our peculiar leadership in the drift toward the slave society. . . . Pieper's profound insights are impressive and even formidable. "- New York Times Book Review "Pieper has subjects involved in everyone's life; he has theses that are so counter to the prevailing trends as to be sensational; and he has a style that is memorably clear and direct. " - Chicago Tribune"
L'emoció d'aprendre: Històries inspiradores d'escola, família i vida
by César Bona«Un viatge cap a la diversitat; una reflexió sobre l'èxit, el fracàs i les expectatives que condicionen nens, nenes i adolescents, i sobre com podem donar-los la possibilitat de construir el seu propi futur.» Què és l'èxit per a tu? I el fracàs? I si penses en nens i nenes, què contestaries? Quan mires els que t'envolten, consideres que no tens prejudicis? Hi ha certes creences que distorsionen la teva manera de veure la vida? Com a docents, moltes coses no ens les van ensenyar a la universitat; com a pares, aprenem a força d'assaig i error. L'empatia és un joc que cal practicar cada dia, i això no implica allunyar-se del que ets sinó acostar-se al que l'altra persona és i sent. Al món hi ha gairebé vuit milions de persones, cadascuna diferent de la resta. Les diferències són un valor, i no un inconvenient. Quan entenguem això, començarem a veure la vida d'una altra manera, amb la riquesa que proporciona la diversitat. En aquest llibre trobaràs històries inspiradores que conviden a reflexionar sobre totes aquestes preguntes i sobre la manera com mirem els qui ens envolten. «No és el que mires, és el que veus», deia Thoreau. I cada paraula, cada gest, compta. La crítica ha dit...«César obre nous horitzons per als nens. Està creant líders del futur animant-los a agafar les regnes per emprendre accions i canviar actituds -i pràctiques- de la societat.»Jane Goodall «La meva primera descoberta del 2015 ha estat conèixer l'existència del professor César Bona. És un plaer comprovar que, de tant en tant, apareix un personatge humil capaç de despertar admiració unànime [...]. Ensenya els seus alumnes a gaudir de la natura i dels animals, i a fer pel·lícules, jugar, imaginar i pensar en els altres. També els ensenya anglès, història imatemàtiques, però el que ell considera bàsic és que siguin bones persones.»Nativel Preciado, Tiempo
Leśniewski's Systems of Logic and Foundations of Mathematics
by Rafal UrbaniakThis meticulous critical assessment of the ground-breaking work of philosopher Stanislaw Leśniewski focuses exclusively on primary texts and explores the full range of output by one of the master logicians of the Lvov-Warsaw school. The author's nuanced survey eschews secondary commentary, analyzing Leśniewski's core philosophical views and evaluating the formulations that were to have such a profound influence on the evolution of mathematical logic. One of the undisputed leaders of the cohort of brilliant logicians that congregated in Poland in the early twentieth century, Leśniewski was a guide and mentor to a generation of celebrated analytical philosophers (Alfred Tarski was his PhD student). His primary achievement was a system of foundational mathematical logic intended as an alternative to the Principia Mathematica of Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell. Its three strands--'protothetic', 'ontology', and 'mereology', are detailed in discrete sections of this volume, alongside a wealth other chapters grouped to provide the fullest possible coverage of Leśniewski's academic output. With material on his early philosophical views, his contributions to set theory and his work on nominalism and higher-order quantification, this book offers a uniquely expansive critical commentary on one of analytical philosophy's great pioneers.
Lenin 2017: Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through
by Slavoj Zizek V. I. LeninOne hundred years after the Russian Revolution, i ek shows why Lenin’s thought is still important todayLenin’s originality and importance as a revolutionary leader is most often associated with the seizure of power in 1917. But, i ek argues in this new study and collection of original texts, Lenin’s true greatness can be better grasped in the very last couple of years of his political life. Russia had survived foreign invasion, embargo and a terrifying civil war, as well as internal revolts such as at Kronstadt in 1921. But the new state was exhausted, isolated and disorientated in the face of the world revolution that seemed to be receding. New paths had to be sought, almost from scratch, for the Soviet state to survive and imagine some alternative route to the future. With his characteristic brio and provocative insight, i ek suggests that Lenin’s courage as a thinker can be found in his willingness to face this reality of retreat lucidly and frontally.From the Hardcover edition.
Lenin's Moscow
by Alfred Rosmer Ian BirchallWhen Alfred Rosmer arrived in Russia in 1919 it was considered by millions to be the center of world revolution. It was also a society beleaguered by civil war and encircled by hostile powers seeking to snuff out the promise and potential the first successful workers' revolution represented. It was in this context that revolutionaries from across the globe undertook the creation of the Communist International, hoping to forge an instrument to fan the flames of the struggle against global capitalism.In this gripping political memoir of his time in Moscow, Rosmer draws on his unique perspective as both a delegate to the Comintern-and as a member of its Executive Committee-to paint a stunning and inspiring picture of the early years of Soviet rule. From the debates sparked by the publication of Lenin's State and Revolution and Left-Wing Communism to the efforts of the International to extend its influence beyond Europe with the Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku, Rosmer documents key developments with an unparalleled clarity of vision and offers invaluable insights.
Leo Esakia on Duality in Modal and Intuitionistic Logics
by Guram BezhanishviliThis volume is dedicated to Leo Esakia's contributions to the theory of modal and intuitionistic systems. Consisting of 10 chapters, written by leading experts, this volume discusses Esakia's original contributions and consequent developments that have helped to shape duality theory for modal and intuitionistic logics and to utilize it to obtain some major results in the area. Beginning with a chapter which explores Esakia duality for S4-algebras, the volume goes on to explore Esakia duality for Heyting algebras and its generalizations to weak Heyting algebras and implicative semilattices. The book also dives into the Blok-Esakia theorem and provides an outline of the intuitionistic modal logic KM which is closely related to the Gödel-Löb provability logic GL. One chapter scrutinizes Esakia's work interpreting modal diamond as the derivative of a topological space within the setting of point-free topology. The final chapter in the volume is dedicated to the derivational semantics of modal logic and other related issues.
Leo Strauss
by Robert HowseExamines the German and Jewish sources of Strauss's thought and the extent to which his philosophy can shed light on the crisis of liberal democracy.
Leo Strauss: An Introduction to His Thought and Intellectual Legacy (The Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought)
by Thomas L. PangleLeo Strauss's controversial writings have long exercised a profound subterranean cultural influence. Now their impact is emerging into broad daylight, where they have been met with a flurry of poorly informed, often wildly speculative, and sometimes rather paranoid pronouncements.This book, written as a corrective, is the first accurate, non-polemical, comprehensive guide to Strauss's mature political philosophy and its intellectual influence. Thomas L. Pangle opens a pathway into Strauss's major works with one question: How does Strauss's philosophic thinking contribute to our democracy's civic renewal and to our culture's deepening, critical self-understanding?This book includes a synoptic critical survey of writings from scholars who have extended Strauss's influence into the more practical, sub-philosophic fields of social and political science and commentary. Pangle shows how these analysts have in effect imported Straussian impulses into a "new" kind of political and social science.
Leo Strauss: An Introduction (Key Contemporary Thinkers)
by Neil G. RobertsonLeo Strauss’s lifelong intellectual mission was to recover ‘classical rationalism’, a pursuit that has made him a controversial figure to this day. While his critics see him as responsible for a troubling anti-democratic strain in modern politics, others argue that his thought is in fact the best defence of responsible democracy. Neil Robertson’s new introduction to Strauss aims to transcend these divides and present a non-partisan account of his thought. He shows how Strauss’ intellectual formation in Weimar Germany and flight from Nazism led him to develop a critique of modernity that tended to support a conservative politics, while embracing a radical sense of what philosophy is and can be. He examines the way in which Strauss built upon the thought of Nietzsche and Heidegger in order to show how their 'nihilism' led not to a standpoint beyond western rationality, but to a recovery of its roots. This skillful reconstruction of the coherence and unity of Strauss’ thought is the essential guide for anyone wishing to fully grasp the contribution of one of the most contentious and intriguing figures in 20th century intellectual history.
Leo Strauss and Anglo-American Democracy: A Conservative Critique
by Grant HaversIn this original new study, Grant Havers critically interprets Leo Strauss's political philosophy from a conservative perspective. Most mainstream readers of Strauss have either condemned him from the Left as an extreme right-wing opponent of liberal democracy or celebrated him from the Right as a traditional defender of Western civilization. Rejecting both of these portrayals, Havers shifts the debate beyond the conventional parameters of our age. He persuasively shows that Strauss was neither a man of the Far Right nor a conservative. He was in fact a secular Cold War liberal who taught his followers to uphold Anglo-American democracy as the one true universal regime that does not need a specifically Christian foundation. Strauss firmly rejects the traditional conservative view held by Edmund Burke that Anglo-American democracy needs the leavening influence of Christian morality (love thy neighbor). Havers maintains that Strauss's refusal to recognize the role of Christianity in shaping Western civilization, though historically unjustified, is crucial to Strauss and the Straussian portrayal of Anglo-American democracy. In the Straussian view, the Anglo-American ideals of liberty, equality, and constitutional government owe more to the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle than to the Christian tradition. In the process, Havers argues, Straussians end up rewriting history by falsely idealizing the ancient Greeks as the forerunners of modern liberal democracy, despite the Greek toleration of practices such as slavery and infanticide. Straussians also misrepresent statesmen of the Anglo-American political tradition such as Abraham Lincoln and Sir Winston Churchill as heirs to the ancient Greek tradition of statecraft, despite their indebtedness to Christianity. Havers contends that the most troubling implication of Straussianism is that it provides an ideological rationale for the aggressive spread of democratic values on a global basis while ignoring the preconditions that make these values possible. Concepts such as the rule of law, constitutional government, Christian morality, and the separation of church and state are not easily transplanted beyond the historic confines of Anglo-American civilization, as recent wars to spread democracy in the Middle East and Central Asia have demonstrated. This excellent study will be of interest not only to longtime readers of Strauss but also philosophers, political scientists, historians, religious studies scholars, and theologians.
Leo Strauss and Contemporary Thought: Reading Strauss Outside the Lines (SUNY series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss)
by Jeffrey A. Bernstein; Jade L. SchiffLeo Strauss's readings of historical figures in the philosophical tradition have been justly well explored; however, his relation to contemporary thinkers has not enjoyed the same coverage. In Leo Strauss and Contemporary Thought, an international group of scholars examines the possible conversations between Strauss and figures such as Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Charles Taylor, and Hans Blumenberg. The contributors examine topics including religious liberty, the political function of comedy, law, and the relation between the Ancients and the Moderns, and bring Strauss into many new and original discussions that will be of use to those interested in the thought of Strauss, the history of philosophy and political theory, and contemporary continental thought.
Leo Strauss and Islamic Political Thought
by Rasoul NamaziIn this book, Rasoul Namazi offers the first in-depth study of Leo Strauss' writings on Islamic political thought, a topic that interested Strauss over the course of his career. Namazi's volume focuses on several important studies by Strauss on Islamic thought. He critically analyzes Strauss's notes on Averroes' commentary on Plato's Republic and also proposes an interpretation of Strauss' theologico-political notes on the Arabian Nights. Namazi also interprets Strauss' essay on Alfarabi's enigmatic treatise, The Philosophy of Plato and provides a detailed commentary on his complex essay devoted to Alfarabi's summary of Plato's Laws. Based on previously unpublished material from Strauss' papers, Namazi's volume provides new insights into Strauss' reflections on religion, philosophy, and politics, and their relationship to wisdom, persecution, divine law, and unbelief in the works of key Muslim thinkers. His work presents Strauss as one of the most innovative historians and scholars of Islamic thought of all time.