A New Politics for Philosophy: Perspectives on Plato, Nietzsche, and Strauss

A New Politics for Philosophy: Essays on Plato, Nietzsche, and Strauss presents meticulous readings of key philosophical works of towering figures from both the classical and modern intellectual traditions: Protagoras, Aeschylus, Xenophon, Plato, Descartes, Nietzsche, and Leo Strauss. Inspired by the scholarship of Laurence Lampert, the international group of scholars explore questions of the nature or identity of the philosopher, with an emphasis on painstaking exegesis informed by close attention to detail. The chapters touch on topics ranging from Plato’s Charmides, Aeschylus’ Prometheia Trilogy, Xenophon’s Hiero or Tyrannicus, Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Ecce Homo, Nietzsche’s Plato, whether Nietzsche thought of himself as a modern-day Socrates, philosophy’s relationship to science, the function of the noontide image in the center of Part IV of Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, a re-evaluation of the young Nietzsche’s break from the spell of Schopenhauer, the dramatic date of the conversation presented in Plato’s Republic, Xenophon’s dialogical investigation of the troubled tyrant’s soul, Leo Stauss’s furtive discussion of Descartes and the modern aspiration to master nature, and Nietzschean environmentalism. The book also includes an interview with Laurence Lampert.