A New Politics for Philosophy

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 Platos Charmides, Aeschylus Prometheia Trilogy, Xenophons Hiero or Tyrannicus, Nietzsches Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Ecce Homo, Nietzsches Plato, whether Nietzsche thought of himself as a modern-day Socrates, philosophys relationship to science, the function of the noontide image in the center of Part IV of Nietzsches Zarathustra, a re-evaluation of the young Nietzsches break from the spell of Schopenhauer, the dramatic date of the conversation presented in Platos Republic, Xenophons dialogical investigation of the troubled tyrants soul, Leo Stausss furtive discussion of Descartes and the modern aspiration to master nature, and Nietzschean environmentalism. The book also includes an interview with Laurence Lampert.