Reading between the lines – Leo Strauss and the history of early modern philosophy / / ed. by Winfried Schröder.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2015 Part 1
• MitwirkendeR: Blau, Adrian,; Curley, Edwin,; Israel, Jonathan,; Laursen, John Christian,; Martinich, A. P.,; McKenna, Antony,; Paganini, Gianni,; Schotte, Dietrich,; Schröder, Winfried,
• HerausgeberIn: Schröder, Winfried,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: New Studies in the History and Historiography of Philosophy , 3
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (226 p.)

Since its publication in 1952, Leo Strauss's Persecution and the Art of Writing has stirred considerable controversy, particularly among historians concerned with early modern philosophy. On the one hand, several scholars share his view that it would be inadequate to generally take at face value the explicit message of texts which were composed in an era in which severe sanctions were imposed on those who entertained deviating views. ‘Reading between the lines’ therefore seems to be the appropriate hermeneutical approach. On the other hand, the risks of such an interpretative maxim are more than obvious, as it might come up to an unlimited license to ascribe heterodox doctrines to early modern philosophers whose manifest teachings were in harmony with the orthodox positions of their time. The conributions to this volume both address these methodological issues and discuss paradigmatic cases of authors who might indeed be candidates for a Straussian ‘reading between the lines’: Hobbes, Spinoza, and Bayle.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Leo Strauss and the Radical Enlightenment -- The Irrelevance of (Straussian) Hermeneutics -- The Virtues and Vices of Leo Strauss, Historian -- Leo Strauss’s Olympian Interpretation: Right, Self-preservation, and Law in The Political Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes -- Art of Writing or Art of Rewriting? -- Resurrecting Leo Strauss -- Spinoza, Strauss, and the Morality of Lying for Safety and Peace -- Pierre Bayle and the Red Herring -- Subject index -- Index of Names