Leo Strauss and Nietzsche / Edition 2

by Laurence Lampert

Overview

The influential political philosopher Leo Strauss has been credited by conservatives with the recovery of the great tradition of political philosophy stretching back to Plato. Among Strauss's most enduring legacies is a strongly negative assessment of Nietzsche as the modern philosopher most at odds with that tradition and most responsible for the sins of twentieth-century culture—relativism, godlessness, nihilism, and the breakdown of family values. In fact, this apparent denunciation has become so closely associated with Strauss that it is often seen as the very core of his thought.

In Leo Strauss and Nietzsche, the eminent Nietzsche scholar Laurence Lampert offers a controversial new assessment of the Strauss-Nietzsche connection. Lampert undertakes a searching examination of the key Straussian essay, "Note on the Plan of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil." He shows that this essay, written toward the end of Strauss's life and placed at the center of his final work, reveals an affinity for and debt to Nietzsche greater than Strauss's followers allow. Lampert argues that the essay comprises the most important interpretation of Nietzsche ever published, one that clarifies Nietzsche's conception of nature and of human spiritual history and demonstrates the logical relationship between the essential themes in Nietzsche's thought—the will to power and the eternal return.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226468266
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	12/19/1997
Edition description:	1
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Laurence Lampert is emeritus professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Introduction
Ch. 1: Strauss's Study of Nietzsche
Ch. 2: How Leo Strauss Read Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil
Ch. 3: Nietzsche's Place in the History of Platonic Political Philosophy
Ch. 4: Strauss's Place in the History of Platonic Political Philosophy
Ch. 5: The Nietzschean Enlightenment
Appendix: "Note on the Plan of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil"
Leo Strauss
Works Cited
Index to Strauss's "Note on the Plan of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil"
General Index

Editorial Reviews

Lampert offers a new assessment of the influential conservative political philosopher Leo Strauss's apparent denunciation of Nietzsche as the modern philosopher most responsible for the evils of 20th- century culture--relativism, godlessness, nihilism, and breakdown of family values. Closely examining the key Straussian essay, "Note on the Plan of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil," Lampert shows that the essay, written toward the end of Strauss's life and placed at the center of his final work, reveals an affinity for and debt to Nietzsche greater than Strauss's followers allow. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Lampert offers a critically keen and penetrating reading of Strauss's "Note on the Plan of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil"....This book is an exemplary model of philosophic commentary. -- Choice

Choice