Modern Crisis Of Political Philosophy And Its Classic Solution

At the end of 20 century, Strauss has gradually moved toward the centre of theacademics after a long time of isolation from the mainstream academics, and attractedmuch attention from large quantities of scholars and even media. In the West, the hugepolitical influence released by Strauss become more obvious; In the East, the Strauss'sphilosophy sailed to China, and aroused a neo-conservatism trend.The main characteristic of Strauss philosophy firstly lies in his unique basicunderstanding of modernity and its crisis. All of his lifelong scholarly efforts had beencontributed to the discussion of the relations of "the ancient and the contemporary","philosophy and politics" and "philosophy and theology". He has been given a title of"thefather of neo-conservatism" because of his perspective of esteeming the ancient over thecontemporary. His big scholarly devotion to the problem of philosophy and theology gainshim as a famous Jewish thinker. As a result of his counter-modern tendency, he sufferedscholarly isolation from the mainstream academics for many years, There is nearly fewcommunications between them; he suffered huge misunderstanding and critique from themainstream academics.When contemporary philosophy follows the philosophical objective of"remolding theworld", Strauss actually does exactly the opposite, intending to restrict the philosophy asan activity of purely knowing the world, to maintain philosophy as a lifestyle. The modernphilosophy regards historicism as the standard mode of thinking, but Strauss declares thatthe historicism is the greatest bias of the time. While mainstream academics criticizetradition philosophy for foundationalism and essentialism, however, Strauss actually triesto seek for monism and the absolute value. When the mainstream academic constructs theliberalism at the basis of relativism, he actually thought that relativism is the biggest crisisof modernity, and considers constructing liberalism above the relativism is similar to abuilding above the sand beach.And the most valuable trait is that his life-long efforts made for the survival and dignity of political philosophy. This dissertation is going to deal with Strauss' politicalphilosophy, to examine the value and the validity of his theory of modernity crisis and itssolution.The paper is divided into six parts. The first part is the introductory part. Thebackground and the value of Strauss philosophy is presented in this part. And the articledeclares that the background and the value of Strauss philosophy have a strong relationwith and the tension between conservatism and liberalism.In the second part, the Strauss's general theoretical view of modernity and modernitycrisis is offered here. And Strauss's diagnosis of modernity crisis and his analyses ofpolitical philosophy crisis appear hand in hand in this chapter. His astonishing argument,"the crisis of modernity is the crisis of political philosophy", is his starting point of hisanalysis of modernity. Most of Strauss's arguments about these three problems, "theancient and the contemporary", "philosophy and politics" and "philosophy and theology",have been organized into a framework from with Strauss viewed modernity and modernpolitical philosophy.In the third part, Strauss's analysis of modernity development is discussed. The mainfeature of his theory about the modernity development is the three waves of modernity.According to Strauss, each of three waves of modernity belongs to the united modernmovement, which is driven by "the politicalization of philosophy" and directed to nihilism.In other words, the end of this modernity movement is the crisis of the time, the nihilism,called the crisis of political philosophy as well.In the fourth part, Strauss's critique of the modernity is demonstrated. Strauss presentshis arguments against third wave of modernity, which is comprised of Nietzsche andHeidegger and so on. Strauss has rebelled against the modernity in three main problems;he pulls philosophy back to the classical philosophy, and attempts to find the solution tomodernity crisis in classical philosophy.The fifth part had demonstrated finally core concepts of Strauss's political philosophy,including, considering philosophy as a highest lifestyle, "Exoteric teaching" and "Esotericteaching", and liberal education. His argument of taking philosophy as a highest lifestyleis a rebellion against the modern trend of "the politicization of philosophy". "Exoteric teaching" and "Esoteric teaching" representing the mode of classic literature, is a rebellionagainst modern literature, namely intellectual sincerity. The liberal education is consideredas the powerful support for true democracy and liberalism. From Strauss's point of view,these three components constituted the structure of classical philosophy, and functions ashis solution to modernity crisis.The sixth part is the commentary part. The commentary part firstly points out that thebasis of Strauss's political philosophy is the opposition against the politicization ofmodern philosophy. This argument has a strong relation with the short-term background of"traumatic memory", and followed the anti-the-enlightenment tradition which last fromthe enlightenment till now. But these arguments issued by Strauss finally criticized in thischapter. Two kinds of critiques against Strauss are made here. Firstly, his character ofanti-enlightenment made his philosophy as a tool which enables the reactionaries moreeasily deny the improvements and achievements made to the world by the enlightenment.Secondly, finally, the various gaps between Marxism and Strauss have been discussed.According to Marxism, Strauss's philosophy is limited to "knowing the world", and thephilosophy of this kind has lost the braveness to remolding the world, which should be theinstinct mission of the modern philosophy.