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Leo Strauss (1899-1973)Author(s): Alexander AltmannSource: Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 41/42 (1973 - 1974),pp. xxxiii-xxxviPublished by: American Academy for Jewish ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3622319 .

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NECROLOGYLEO STRAUSS(1899-1973)

Leo Strauss, hodiedon October 8,1973 nAnnapolis, ary-land,was bornnKirchhain,esse Germany)nSeptember0,1899. After raduationrom ymnasiumn 1917and wartimeservicen theGermanrmy estudied ttheuniversitiesf Mar-burgwhere estruckp a lifelongriendshipith heclassicist,mathematicianndphilosopheracobKlein),Hamburgwhere etookhisdegree f DoctorofPhilosophynderErnstCassirerin 1921), nd Freiburgwhere e didpost-doctoralorkunderEdmund usserl ndHerrmannbbinghaus,nd ttendedecturesbyMartinHeidegger). udgingrom A Giving fAccounts"jointly yhim ndJacobKlein n 1970 The College, nnapolis,April 970), bbinghausntroducedim oHobbes, ndHeideg-ger's nterpretationf thebeginningfAristotle's etaphysicstaught im heartof howto treat philosophicalext. t alsoseems hattwashisfriendleinwho onvincedim f heneces-sity o turn o classical hilosophy,speciallylato, orguidance.Thetheme fancientsersusmodernsever eased o dominatehisthinking.et hisprimarynterestnthose ormativeears, econfessed,as ntheology,ndhere he mpetusamefromheresurgencef heologicaloncernsnthe eriodfterWorldWar .It is significanthathevisited ranzRosenzweigfter isstaynFreiburg,ndthat e dedicatedisfirstooktohim.Hisbrilliantacademic areer tarted ithhe ppointmentoa researchellow-shipat theBerlinAcademyor he Science fJudaism, posthe heldfrom 925to 1930. n 1932he leftGermany. e spentsomeyearss a Rockefellerellown the ocial ciencesn FranceandEngland.n ParishemetAlexandreojeve nd nCambridgehe became cquainted ithErnest arker. is stay n England

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facilitatedhetranslation,romheGermanmanuscript,f hisstudy f thepolitical hilosophyf Hobbes.The bookappearedin Oxfordn 1936 later ditions: hicago, 963, 966),ndmadehimmorewidely nown hanhisprevious ublications.fter isimmigrationo theUnited tatesn 1938he oined heGraduateFaculty f Political nd Social Science f theNew School forSocial ResearchnNew York.HisbookOnTyrannyaswrittenduring istenurefofficehere.n 1949hebecame professorofpoliticalcience t theUniversityfChicago,ndin 1959hewasmade heRobertM. Hutchinsistinguishedervicerofessorof Political cience. ponhis retirementn1967he wasawardedthetitle f Professormeritus. e continuedo teach, irsttClaremont en'sCollege,nd later s thefirstcottBuchananDistinguishedcholarnResidencefSt.John's ollegen Anna-polis,Maryland,heposition e heldat thetime fhisdeath.He was a fellow f theAmericancademyfArts ndSciences;oftheAmerican cademyorJewish esearch; nd a memberof heExecutiveommitteef heLeo Baecknstitute,ewYork.JosephCropsey ditedAncientsndModerns; ssayson thetradi-tionofpoliticalphilosophyn honorofLeo Strauss New York,1964). The Achievementf Leo Strauss"was evaluatedyfourof hisdisciplesWalter erns, erbert .Storing,arry . Jaffaand Werner .Dannhauser)n theNational eviewf December7, 1973.Strauss'iteraryutputwasextremelyichnimportantorksand tmaybedividednto womajor ectionsomprisinga) thewritingsoncerned ith oliticalciencengeneral,nd b) thosedealingwith hetheologico-politicalspects fJudaismn par-ticular. et theres no strict emarcationine betweenhetwoareas.His Die Religionskritikpinozasals GrundlageeinerBibel-wissenschaft1930; Spinoza's Critique f Religion,1965) clearlybelongso both. t led him o Hobbeson theonehand, nd toMaimonidesntheother,s he himselfeported;ndthe ubjecthad aroused is nterestecause pinoza's ractatusasthe clas-sicdocumentf theattack n orthodoxyithin udaism"nd,at thesametime, ffered possibilityftestinghedegree f

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success r failuref theEnlightenmentn tsefforto undermineallorthodoxy,ewishnd Christian.imilarly,ersecutionndtheArt fWriting1952)presentedgenerallyalid hesis evelopedchieflyromn analysisfJewishources. hediscoveryf eso-tericismn Maimonidesnd others wed great ealto Strauss'study fLessing'sheological ritings,s he liked o point ut,and it is quiteobvious hatJewishndnon-Jewishlementsfthoughtruitfullyingledn his mind.A profoundnderlyingconcernor nunderstandingfwhatwas nvolvednreligionndphilosophy asresponsibleor heremarkablenity fpurposeand nneronsistencyfallhewrote. othing asmore lien ohim han ridcompartmentalization.Works fhis hatmay e isted nder ubrica) areThe oliticalphilosophy fHobbes; itsbasis and itsgenesis 1936, 1963,1966);NaturalRightndHistory1953, 1963);OnTyranny,ev. d. 1963);Thoughts n Machiavelli 1958); What s politicalphilosophyndotherStudies 1959); History fpoliticalphilosophy,d. by LeoStraussndJoseph ropsey1963, 969);The ityndman1964);Socratesand Aristophanes1966); Xenophon's ocratic Discourse(1970); Xenophon's ocrates 1972). A book on Plato's Laws isscheduledoappear osthumously.Thewritingshat ome nderubricb)are series fpenetratingstudiesn Jewish hilosophy. s researchellow t theBerlinAcademyeproduced,nadditiono hisworknSpinoza, olumesII andIII.1 of theAcademy-sponsoredubileedition fMosesMendelssohn's orksointlywith ritzBamberger1931;1932),and he completedn 1937volume 11.2,ongafter e had leftGermany.hisvolume, hichontains ismasterfulntroductionto, and fully nnotated ritical dition f,Mendelssohn'sastwritingsthose oncerned ith essing'slleged antheism),adtowait ortspublicationntil 974.n 1935hisprovocativeookPhilosophiendGesetz fferednewperspectiven the nterpreta-tionofMaimonidesnoppositionoJulius uttmann's,nd anarticle f his ntheMonatsschriftf 1937discussed aimonides'doctrinefProvidencen the ncisivendprobingmannernehad learned o expectfhim.Maimonidesontinuedo fascinate

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him, s is evidencedyhisessay nthe iteraryharacterftheGuidein Essays on Maimonides, d. by Salo W. Baron (1941;1966) nd the ntroductoryssayhewrote or henew ranslationoftheGuide yShlomo ines 1963).So much ad heimmersedhimselfnthe ttemptodisentangleaimonides'resumedso-tericismhat ediscoveredtrangeeysndoftenbstrusenswers.Thecomparison ith eethoven'sastquartetsmaynotbe com-pletelyut ofplace.One finds similar ilfulnessfexegesisnhis lecture erusalemndAthensThe CityCollegeNewYork,1967).Thepoliticalrientationredominatesntwoother tudiesofhisthat renotdirectlyelatedoMaimonides,iz. On Abra-vanel'sphilosophicalendencynd political eaching"n IsaacAbravanel,d. byJ. B. Trend nd H. Loewe 1937)and "TheLaw ofReason ntheKuzari," magisterialieceof work hatwaspublishedn vol. XIII (1943)ofthese roceedings.entionshould lso be madeofhis ntroductoryssay oSimonKaplan'sEnglishranslationfHermannohen's eligionfReason1972).Cohen's ritiquefSpinozahadchallengedim t thebeginningofhiscareero reexaminehe atter'sttack northodoxeligion,and inPhilosophiendGesetz e had quotedCohen'sutteranceaboutMaimonideseingmore f Platonisthan nAristotelian,therebylaiming ohen's upportorhispoliticalnterpretationof Maimonides'Guide. ntroducingheReligionof Reason and,more o, its author o English eaderswas more han n act ofpiety.t meant hat hecircle f his ife's oursewascomplete.Thedeath fLeo Strauss asdeprivedmericanoliticalcienceofone ofits mostdistinguishednd influentialeachers.t hasremovedrom heworld fJewishcholarshipneof tsnoblestandmost ultivatedinds,rare piritf rulyhilosophicalthosandprofoundeverenceor heJewishradition.

Alexanderltmann

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