Leo Strausso sugrįžimas prie užmiršto rašymo meno

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reconstruct Leo Strauss’ project of a return to the forgotten art of writing and to demonstrate its relation to his attempts to find alternatives to historicist positions. By emphasizing the insoluble conflict between the political community and philosophical life medieval philosophers opened up the possibility of a novel understanding of the premodern philosophical tradition. This new perspective is based on the assumption that philosophers of the past attempted to avoid persecution and wanted to protect their societies from the potentially destructive effects of philosophical radicalism, which is why the presentation of their doctrines was formed by the distinction between esoteric and exoteric doctrines. The forgetfulness of the technique of careful writing began with the implementation of liberal political principles and was furthered by the triumph of historicist assumptions. Strauss’ return to classical political philosophy is inseparable from his polemics with historicist positions that negate the fundamental assumptions of this tradition. By emphasizing the distinction between esoteric and exoteric elements of philosophical texts Strauss introduces a technique of interpretation which is based on attempts to distinguish between elements that have a transhistorical meaning and are found in the esoteric doctrine, from the exoteric teaching, which has always been accommodated to the dogmas and prejudices of concrete society. The attempt to reconstruct the transhistorical elements of doctrines is inseparable from the goal of returning to the natural consciousness that is to be found in the tradition of ancient political philosophy.