Sage or Sphinx without a Secret? How to Approach Leo Strauss

The author discusses four major schools of critical analysis of Leo Strauss with particular reference to the work of Myles Burnyeat (a labour-left academic) Paul Gottfried (a paleoconservative scholar), Alan Gilbert (a Marxist theorist) and Kevin MacDonald (an evolutionary psychologist). The essay focuses particularly on Strauss’ Platonic scholarship, the interpretation of Plato’s Republic, the political implications of his critique of modernity, and the important differences between Strauss himself and so-called Straussians. The author commences with a concise biographical summary of Strauss, delves into an analysis of Classical Greek texts with reference to the work of John Toland, Marquis de Condorcet, Sir Thomas More, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Cicero, before concluding with a commentary on Strauss’ brief yet direct political involvement in the US Presidential campaign of 1972.

David McBryde has a 1st class Honours BA in Classical Greek and a PhD in Classics on Aristotle's Ethics. He has taught Latin and Greek at secondary and tertiary levels. He was also a student of the late Dick Staveley, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland who was the only Australian student of Leo Strauss.

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