Practical philosophy and piety: The middle action of the individual and the political

After centuries of neglect, the practical approach to philosophy has been reborn though Hans-Georg Gadamer and Leo Strauss' resurrection of Plato. As practical revisions or extensions of Heidegger that includes Plato, Gadamer and Strauss offer two disparate pretheoretical approaches to the philosophic life. By setting their thought in contention with one another against a background of Plato's Euthyphro, the significance of practical philosophy makes plain the importance of their “practical” turn. In contrast to theory and art, practice turns the focus of philosophy toward unspeakable elements of beauty and goodness. I will show how the practical provides a corrective to the dominant views of art and science and what significance this corrective offers. First, by approaching the practical manner in which Socrates meets Euthyphro, the necessity of practical philosophy appears as the most dominant element of philosophy. Then, against this background, the argument engages the Platonism of Gadamer and Strauss. I will point out how their contribution to a modern rebirth of practical philosophy revitalizes an ancient form of philosophy. But because they appear to differ as to the practice of practical philosophy, Gadamer calling it hermeneutics and Strauss calling it political philosophy, interrogating this difference serves as a creative and generative opposition of two nuanced and important contributions to modern philosophy. Gadamer and Strauss seem to present a tension between theory and practice, hermeneutics and politics, but I suggest that they show them unified. Gadamer's universal hermeneutics and Strauss' political philosophy present a unity of theory and practice because they approach philosophy as a “way of life.” Their approach renews Socratic, Platonic, and Aristotelian practice at least in some measure. I intend to show that philosophy, as all these practices demonstrate, begins and ends with, dwells within, the permanent question of the best or most human way of life. This characterization of their approach to philosophy makes it clear that for ancient and modern alike, the question of philosophy centers in ethics, and this ethical dimension of practical thinking demands a reorientation of modern philosophy. I will argue that art and science belong in the domain of human action or ethics rather than human action belonging to the domain of theory or art. I wish only to promote their thought as it promises a transformation of philosophy away from abstraction and toward practical judgment. My argument confronts today's traditional manner of inquiry that begins in theory and seeks to make clear what happens if practical philosophy takes theory's place. Plato, Gadamer, and Strauss, despite apparent differences, provide a means to bring about a renaissance of philosophic practice that, like da Vinci, unifies the many capacities of human beings.