Philosophy as Stranger Wisdom

Carlo Altini

ISBN 10: 1438490054 / ISBN 13: 9781438490052

Published by State University of New York Press, US, 2022

About this Item

The first complete intellectual biography of one of the most influential and controversial philosophers of the twentieth century, Leo Strauss.What is philosophy and who is the philosopher? What should be the relationship between the philosopher and the city? And what should be the attitude that the philosopher must have with respect to tradition, religion and politics? These questions, which have spanned the entire history of Western philosophical thought, from ancient Greece onwards, found original answers in one of the greatest figures of twentieth-century culture, Leo Strauss. Philosophy as Stranger Wisdom, thanks to a scrupulous study of his entire bibliography, represents the first truly comprehensive and complete intellectual biography of Strauss. The reader will find in these pages a Strauss who is not an American neoconservative theorist nor an orthodox Jew, but rather an original reader and interpreter of classical authors: from Thucydides and Plato to Machiavelli and Hobbes. Carlo Altini presents us with a philosopher who escapes any attempt at classification, who lived constantly in exile between theory and practice, philosophy and politics, immanence and transcendence, and who considered philosophy the most important critical exercise of human reason, always "out of date" and always "out of place.".

Seller Inventory # LU-9781438490052

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Philosophy as Stranger Wisdom
• Publisher: State University of New York Press, US
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1438490054
• ISBN 13: 9781438490052
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 476 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The first complete intellectual biography of one of the most influential and controversial philosophers of the twentieth century, Leo Strauss.

What is philosophy and who is the philosopher? What should be the relationship between the philosopher and the city? And what should be the attitude that the philosopher must have with respect to tradition, religion and politics? These questions, which have spanned the entire history of Western philosophical thought, from ancient Greece onwards, found original answers in one of the greatest figures of twentieth-century culture, Leo Strauss. Philosophy as Stranger Wisdom, thanks to a scrupulous study of his entire bibliography, represents the first truly comprehensive and complete intellectual biography of Strauss. The reader will find in these pages a Strauss who is not an American neoconservative theorist nor an orthodox Jew, but rather an original reader and interpreter of classical authors: from Thucydides and Plato to Machiavelli and Hobbes. Carlo Altini presents us with a philosopher who escapes any attempt at classification, who lived constantly in exile between theory and practice, philosophy and politics, immanence and transcendence, and who considered philosophy the most important critical exercise of human reason, always "out of date" and always "out of place."

About the Author

Carlo Altini is Professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy.