The Limits of the City: Leo Strauss’s Hermeneutics and Plato’s Republic

IF 0.1 0 PHILOSOPHY
Cristina Basili
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on Leo Strauss’s reading of the Republic. I argue that Strauss’s ironic interpretation of the dialogue must be understood in the context of a broader intellectual project which aims to criticize modern and contemporary political philosophy. Strauss’s understanding of Plato is strongly influenced by the hermeneutical principles he draws from his studies of medieval Jewish and Arab philosophy. Reading Plato through Alfarabi, Strauss pursues the idea of the conflict between philosophy and politics, which sheds light, also, on the problem of persecution. Accordingly, he stresses the importance of a peculiar art of reading between the lines. In Strauss’s view, this art is the starting point for recovering the esoteric meaning of the Republic. I will argue that Strauss’s interpretation contradicts several dialogical elements because it does not take into account the broader historical framework of the text. Nevertheless, even with these limitations, Plato scholars should consider Straussian insights, because these offer an untraditional and a non-doctrinal reading of the dialogue.
城市的极限:施特劳斯的解释学和柏拉图的理想国
本文主要研究利奥·施特劳斯对《共和国》的解读。我认为,施特劳斯对对话的讽刺性解读必须放在一个更广泛的知识分子项目的背景下理解,该项目旨在批评现代和当代政治哲学。施特劳斯对柏拉图的理解受到他从中世纪犹太和阿拉伯哲学研究中汲取的解释学原则的强烈影响。通过阿尔法拉比解读柏拉图,施特劳斯追求哲学与政治冲突的理念,这也揭示了迫害问题。因此,他强调了一种独特的字里行间阅读艺术的重要性。在施特劳斯看来,这门艺术是恢复共和国神秘意义的起点。我认为施特劳斯的解释与几个对话元素相矛盾,因为它没有考虑到文本更广泛的历史框架。尽管如此,即使有这些限制,柏拉图学者也应该考虑斯特劳斯的见解,因为这些见解提供了对对话的非传统和非教义解读。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
22
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