POL S 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Leo Strauss, Orthodox Judaism, Political Philosophy
Document Summary
Lecture 2: leo strauss - "what is political. Born to orthodox jewish parents (in 20th century germany) Went to university to gain degree in philosophy. Bounced around teaching from paris to england to chicago. Esoteric reading: looking at the hidden meaning of things. Associated with conservativism because of his critiques on democracy. Questioning the good life vs. good society (first paragraph of the text) Determining what "good" is everything is based off a good which we are inherently aware of. Politics is to aim at some sort of valuable and beneficial life worth living. Aristotle says if you"re impoverished, the good life isn"t available for you. Political philosophy is searching for the truth, pushing beyond opinion. Requires the attempt to replace opinion with knowledge (pg. Political thought makes no distinction between opinion and knowledge. Think about politics today and how much people spout opinions and arguments either "as" fact, or ignoring facts entirely.
