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Machiavelli’s Subversion of Esotericism

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The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss

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Abstract

Strauss considers our present political predicament to be one of ‘crisis’; in particular, it is a crisis occasioned by what he calls ‘modernity’. Simply stated, ‘modernity’ is the revolution against the wisdom of antiquity; a revolution that Strauss undoubtedly believes to be not only ill-conceived and foolish, but ultimately disastrous for the continued survival of Western civilization. We cannot understand what Strauss means by modernity without first grasping the central role he attributes to Machiavelli in this revolution.

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Notes

  1. See J. G. A. Pocock, ‘Prophet and Inquisitor’, Political Theory, vol. 3, no. 4 (November 1975) pp. 385–401; see also Felix Gilbert’s review of Leo Strauss’s Thoughts on Machiavelli, in Yale Review, vol. 48 (1959) pp. 466–9.

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  2. John Gunnell, ‘The Myth of the Tradition’, American Political Science Review vol. 72 (1978) pp. 122–34, esp. p. 133.

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  3. Carl J. Friedrich, ‘Teacher of Evil’, New Leader, vol. 42 (12 October 1959) pp. 27–8; see also G. L. Mosse’s review in American Historical Review, vol. 64, no. 4 (July 1959) pp. 954–5.

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  4. Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, trans. George Schwab, with comments by Leo Strauss (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1976).

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  5. Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1958).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Shadia B. Drury (Associate Professor of Political Science)

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  1. Shadia B. Drury
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© 1988 Shadia B. Drury

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Drury, S.B. (1988). Machiavelli’s Subversion of Esotericism. In: The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19128-4_6

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