The philosopher's Jeremiad: Prophecy and political philosophy in Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas

Old Testament prophecy has been a frequent theme for philosophers from Spinoza to Nietzsche. Western philosophy has often drawn from the Jewish and Christian traditions. But prophecy is particularly significant because of its resemblance to political philosophy, offering active models of philosophic politics and rhetoric. The employment of prophetic styles of speech was so pervasive in nineteenth century thought that the idea of "secular prophecy" eventually became a prominent theme and critical target for scholars as diverse as Isaiah Berlin, Karl Lowith, and Eric Voegelin.;The philosophic use of prophecy has changed significantly in the twentieth century, however. After the ideological disasters of this century, many thinkers have reconceived both the question of speech and the relation between the biblical and philosophic traditions. Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas are two of the most prominent thinkers for whom these issues are formative. Both thinkers were influenced by Martin Heidegger, and both were Jews repulsed by the messianic justification Heidegger gave for his allegiance to the Nazi party in the 1930s. While repudiating all eschatological futurism, Strauss and Levinas both invoke the prophetic ideal of "return" as a moral response to the modern crisis of the West. Strauss offers a return to Greek philosophy, but one that is infused with the rhythms, the language, and the exegetical rituals of Talmudic Judaism. Conversely, Levinas navigates a return to Talmudic Judaism, but one that is only made possible through his practice of a critical phenomenology.;In this dissertation, I examine the logic of prophetic return as a model of political philosophy in Strauss and Levinas. While each thinker seeks to distinguish the two great cultural roots of the Western tradition, thus freeing each root to pursue its own ends, I argue that their returns remain in a tension between Jewish faith and Greek philosophy. These complex returns are significant as attempts to reorient the moral status of both faith and philosophy in the modern West.