Natural Legitimacy, Nihilism, And A Return To The Classics

In Leo Strauss's opinion, Natural right is not only the ultimate evaluation criterion but also the idea picture of human society; contrary to convention, natural right has the characters of constant and preliminary. Natural right is the law and logic that lies behind phenomena; it depends on the philosopher's endeavor to discover. Natural right's constant and preliminary characteristics, makes it firmly connected with modern nihilism:on the one hand, the abandon of natural right in modern political philosophy is one of the main cause of modern nihilism; on the other hand, if we want conquer modern nihilism, one of the important way is to return to the classical political philosophy, to pay attention to natural right and investigate into it. The research on Leo Strauss's thoughts of this paper precisely concerns on his thoughts of natural right, we try to based on the works of Leo Strauss's, through compare the thoughts of Strauss with Nietzsche, Heidegger and Koieve's, to clarify what is the connotation and effect of natural right in Leo Strauss's thought, to clarify why Strauss propose to seek for natural right to conquer modern nihilism, and to clarify what is Strauss's civilization ideal that coincide with natural right.According to Strauss, the key to conquer western nihilism is to seek for an ultimate value evaluation criterion. But, no matter the religion based on enlightenment, modern historicism, or modern rationalism, in fact, to a certain extent, all point to a certain ultimate aim or ultimate evaluation criterion. Leo Strauss didn't choose any way of the above, however, but returned to the classical political philosophy, to seek for natural right to conquer modern nihilism. The reason lies in three aspects:the first is that Leo Strauss accurately grasped the difference between rational and enlightenment, which the former characterized by earthbound and the latter is characterized by transcendent; the second reason is that Leo Strauss realized the constancy the theory of "The End of History" emphasized is different form the theory of natural right emphasized; the third reason is that Leo Strauss realized the difference between modern rationalism and classical political rationalism, which the former one characterized by "rational overconfidence" and the latter one characterized by "rational modest".No matter Strauss, Nietzsche or Heidegger, they all believe that the basic problem of modernity is nihilism. But in Nietzsche and Heidegger's opinion, the modern nihilism derives form Socrates and Plato's classical political rationalism; and in Leo Strauss's opinion, modern nihilism derives form the "three waves of modernity", derives from modern political philosophy's deviate from the Socrates and Plato's classical political philosophy. Generally speaking, there are three reasons that cause the difference:The first is that Strauss, Nietzsche and Heidegger have different opinion on nihilism's connotation; Nietzsche's nihilism mainly refers to the nihility of perceptual life and Super Man's will to power which was caused by traditional metaphysics and religion; Heidegger's nihilism, mainly focus on the nihility of "Being", which was caused by traditional metaphysics and rational mode of thinking; and Strauss's nihilism mainly focus on the nihility caused by the lack of ultimate value evaluation criterion. The second reason is that they have different opinion on the aims to conquer nihilism, to conquer nihilism, Nietzsche aims at underlines the super man's will to power and to conquer the pessimistic tendency of life in Schopenhauer's thought. Heidegger try to makes "Being" historical thoroughly, and try to substitute technological thought with poetic thought; Strauss try to seek for a value support for the stable of the political society and for the social welfare. In Strauss's opinion, any social without restricts of ultimate value couldn't make an ultimate judgment of justice, and this makes the social couldn't avoid value crisis and couldn't keep stable and order.What is Strauss's civilization ideal based on classical political rationalism and the theory of natural right? Nietzsche gives superman the power of making ultimate judgments, he abandoned natural right, abandoned the objective basis of value judgment. Nietzsche's ideal social is a social of value nihility, and the ultimate end of this kind of social is anarchism. Koieve's ideal state is a Universal-homogeneous state, this kind of state denied the critical function of philosophy, denied human ration's promotion function in historical progress, and denied the possibility of conflict between human races. But in Strauss's opinion, the absolute reconcile of human is impossible, so, political life is in some degree our destiny. Based on the classical political rationalism, Strauss believes that an ideal civilization should stress the importance of wisdom. If we want to realize this civilization, in Strauss's opinion, the first thing we should do is to carry out the "Liberal Education" and through this way to promote people's classical philosophy training.The political philosophy of Leo Strauss provided a useful train of thought in conquering the difficult position of value in modern society, but there are also some problems. These problems mainly reflected in the following:the first is whether the natural right could be justified. To justify natural right is the premise that Leo Strauss's thought could establish, but in fact, the justification of natural right is very hard, if not impossible. The second problem is the possibility of corruption of the philosophers. Leo Strauss accepted the thoughts of Plato and gives the philosophers the dominant status in political life, but if the corruption of philosophers occurs, it could bring great disaster to the society, Leo Strauss seems to have neglected it. The third is whether the theoretical attempt of political philosophy could bring on the refinement of the real political life. For, on the one hand, Leo Strauss denied the possibility of teaching the political philosophy to the mass, but on the other hand, he tries to refine the real world through turn to the classical political philosophy, there lies a contradiction in this logic.