Leo Strauss’s Olympian Interpretation

Abstract

The author’s thesis is that Leo Strauss’s view is fundamentally mistaken about the foundational concepts of Hobbes’s political philosophy in De cive, namely, Hobbes’s concepts of right, self-preservation, and law. Concerning rights, Strauss’s claim that they are normative is mistaken. For Hobbes, rights exist where no law excludes them, that is, in the state of nature. They contribute to conflict; but no one violates another person’s right in that state. As for self-preservation, it is a desire and does not mean that humans have to use reason. Finally, as for law, Strauss is mistaken in thinking that Hobbes was an innovator in understanding it in terms of will. God’s laws in the Bible are laws because God wills them. And Hobbes’s laws depend primarily on reason and authority.