Leo Strauss, On the Borders of Judaism, Philosophy, and History

260 Pages·2015·1.8 MB·English

by  Jeffrey A. Bernstein

LEO STRAUSS

ON THE BORDERS OF JUDAISM,
PHILOSOPHY, AND HISTORY
SUNY series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss
Kenneth Hart Green, editor
LEO STRAUSS

ON THE BORDERS OF JUDAISM,
PHILOSOPHY, AND HISTORY
(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)
Jeffrey A. Bernstein
Cover art: oil painting by Giorgio di Chirico entitled Turin Spring (1914).
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2015 State University of New York
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Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bernstein, Jeffrey Alan, author.
Leo Strauss on the borders of Judaism, philosophy, and history / Jeffrey A. Bern-
stein.
pages cm. — (SUNY series in the thought and legacy of Leo Strauss)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5651-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-5653-9 (e-book)
1. Strauss, Leo. 2. Jewish philosophy. 3. Judaism and politics. I. Title.
BM755.S75B47 2015
181'.06—dc23
2014027592
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my parents—Judith and Stephen Bernstein
To my children—Zachary and Nathaniel Bernstein
To my wife—Ingrid Rasmussen
Jerusalem and Athens one and all

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xv
Introduction xvii
Part I. On the Way to Jerusalem and Athens
Chapter One: The Theological-Political Problem, Strauss’s
Critique of Modern “Jewish Philosophy,” and the Legacy
of Kant 3
Chapter Two: Strauss’s Maimonides 33
Part II. Jerusalem and Athens in Deed
Chapter Three: Philosophy as a Platonic Dialogue, or
Jerusalem and Athens in Jerusalem 63
Chapter Four: The Theological-Political Significance
of “What Is Political Philosophy?” 89
Part III. Conclusion
Chapter Five: The Transmission of Philosophy as a Way of
Life: Maimonides Viewed Through a Spinozan Lens 135
Notes 165
Bibliography 207
Index 223
vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A
book is a thing about which it can justifiably be said, “You didn’t
build that on your own.” This does not, to my mind, amount to
a refusal to take credit or responsibility for the contents in this vol-
ume. It is, rather, an admission that writing and thinking, while in
one sense irreducible to context, nonetheless happens as a response
to other irreducible individuals. I have many such individuals to
thank for their help throughout the process of conceiving, thinking,
and composing this book.
I wasn’t originally going to write a book on Strauss. My dis-
sertation (written during my years at Vanderbilt University) was on
Spinoza, Schelling, and Heidegger on the question of human free-
dom. Coming to the conclusion that the question of human freedom
requires taking a stance on the question of what Karl Löwith referred
to as meaning in history, my project mutated into one involving Spi-
noza, Kant, and Schelling (my interest in Heidegger having waned
somewhat over the years) on the question of a nonteleological con-
ception of history. That many of these “chapters” came out in article
form indicated to me that I was ambivalent about the project. That
ambivalence can be articulated as follows: if I was writing a book
about Spinoza, Kant, and Schelling and I knew that Spinoza would
“win,” why was I writing a book about Spinoza, Kant and Schelling?
While my initial project stalled, my interest in freedom, history, and,
ultimately, the order that history seemed to imply, did not. Continu-
ing to think long and deeply about these issues led me to undertake
the project, the results of which you are about to read. Simply stated,
Strauss is the only philosopher I could think of who uses the entire
history of philosophy as a lens through which to illustrate order and
freedom as modes of the human soul. This would be the most basic
ix