/lit/ - Literature

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg

>>14365132
That's really broad strokes stuff, and contains misrepresentations. Supposedly he was a deep thinker or something. Also, leave this board forever!

>>14365141
I refuse to click "View" on whatever that cunt posted, but anyways I have read Strauss' Lectures on Plato's Symposium and it has greatly influenced my whole approach to Greek literature (I study classics as part of my major). Of course not everything he says is very convincing, but his overall method as a close reader is truly impressive; I'd definitely like to find out about how that translates into his more strictly philosophical work myself. Evidently he always viewed himself as a "scholar" rather than a "thinker" in his own right. Anyways one of my dad's friends from grad school was a committed socialist but did his dissertation on Strauss, so his work definitely has appeal regardless of one's political orientation.

>>14365125
just read three waves of modernity and go from there anon

>>14365125
When I was in highschool one time after school I was at the local book store reading Plato's Republic, my first introduction to Philosophy. Anyway and some guy, probably in his fifties with two little children remarked at how young I was, how he was impressed etc etc. He told me to read a man named Strauss who wrote about The Republic. I said thanks and will do, he made another praising complement and then went over to look at the classical musical records. Tfw never read it, what was he recommending me?

He wasn't wearing any shoes.

>>14365286
He came in that particular bookstore's copy.

>>14365286
based barefoot patrician dad

>>14365243
>Strauss' Lectures on Plato
>greatly influenced my whole approach to Greek
Isn't his theory on Plato... quite conspiracy theoretical? Especially on the political philosophy.
That really reminds me Gnosticism

>Strauss was somebody who wanted to go back to a previous, pre-liberal, pre-bourgeois era of blood and guts, of imperial domination, of authoritarian rule, of pure fascism
based

>>14365318
I mean yes he entertains the idea of an esoteric doctrine in the Academy (not a "conspiracy theory," but rather a whole school of scholarly approach), but it doesn't really predetermine his interpretation. What Strauss does so well, imo, is show how the aesthetic structure an author has imposed on an otherwise ostensibly dull or inscrutable passage, can illuminate its meaning. I mean it's really not so different from New Criticism in general, but Strauss is so firmly grounded in Greek in general and Plato in particular that it strikes me as being sort of sui generis in terms of method.

And yeah I mean Plato and Platonic thinkers contributed most of Gnosticism's doctrine, so that shouldn't come as a surprise.

>>14365327
Please fuck off

strauss was a jew who understood that reason eats itself because germans figured it out. all the germans became fascists but strauss couldn't become a fascist because he was a jew, and the #1 thing fascists like to do is kill jews. strauss didn't have a solution to the reason eating itself problem, so he went to america and started a cult of american students he openly disparaged for being morons in letters to his german friends. because he identified the epistemological premises of modern nihilism with those of ancient scepticism, he advocated a return to classical philosophy at a higher level than the ancients themselves. depending on who you listen to, this was because:
>he knew scepticism could never be decisively solved so he wanted to do the next best thing and create a self-renewing modern aristocracy who cultivate phronesis and sophrosyne to counterbalance the merely technical rationality of the enlightenment and its successors, positivist science and technocracy
>he wanted to create the bush-era neocons so they could shit on plebs forever, operating as a shadow elite whispering in the ears of power (shadia drury)
>he wanted to prevent fascism from ever happening again, because fascism kills jews, and he likes jews (paul gottfried)
>he wanted to turn conservatism into a clubhouse for jewish elites to gatekeep who is/isn't a conservative in america and make sure it remains friendly to jewish interests
>he went a little insane and started doing weird numerology shit, so even if he did have goals at some point, they were muddled by his senility
>some combination of the above

>>14365286
i've seen some odd inductions into the strauss cult before but this one is definitely the oddest

>>14365341
Strauss cult?

>>14365341
Thanks. How did it come to pass that his followers, in particular, came to power?

>>14365349
whatever you might like or dislike about strauss himself, "the straussians" are one of the most obnoxious groups in academia. they have a well deserved reputation for moving into departments and universities and turning them into mills for producing more straussians, gradually ousting anyone who doesn't suit them.

they like to attract promising students by cultivating the air of intrigue that already surrounds them, and hamming up their role as pariahs. lots of people hate them and view them as vaguely paleoconservative elitists, so they play this angle up, pretending that the hate comes from plebs, and their elitism is earned, because they are a secret club of people who really care about philosophy as opposed to the standard academic dilettantes. in reality, straussians are hated for being embarrassingly cliquish and insular. they are also comically bad at philosophy, especially at the contemporary european philosophy that strauss based his entire life's work on for three decades before going to america, which they somehow excuse themselves from reading because the later strauss emphasized classical philosophy.

the typical straussian is a tryhard graduate student who thinks he's in the Skull and Bones because he has been taught some hermeneutically idiosyncratic readings of plato, to the exclusion of other readings. most straussians are bad scholars. largely because straussians train you to be a straussian, not a scholar.

i am not an antisemite (i'm jewish myself fwiw) but it's an open secret that they are also very jewish. don't expect to get too far up in the ranks if you don't speak the same language. even if you do, you have to really like the country club atmosphere.

>>14365359
gottfried and drury are worth reading even if drury is sensationalist

they're also spreading in china since the 90s lol

>>14365393
>the typical straussian is a tryhard graduate student who thinks he's in the Skull and Bones because he has been taught some hermeneutically idiosyncratic readings of plato, to the exclusion of other readings. most straussians are bad scholars. largely because straussians train you to be a straussian, not a scholar.
Just reading up on Strauss he seems partially interesting but does just get caught up in these small and extremely particular things of no value. Would you say that is accurate? And he also doesn't seem to have any true convictions beyond his own jewishness and the abstract.

>i am not an antisemite (i'm jewish myself fwiw) but it's an open secret that they are also very jewish. don't expect to get too far up in the ranks if you don't speak the same language. even if you do, you have to really like the country club atmosphere.
Yeesh, sounds fucking disgusting.

Strauss' lectures on Nietzsche is really all you need. Good reader of the texts... no white washing faggotry like Kaufmann

>>14365125
>mmmhh esotericism is pretty based
>we need to revive classical philosophy
>start with the Greeks
>the goyim exist only to serve us, but there are a few acceptable ones that can join the ranks of the chosen by adoption
There is your quick rundown.

Do the Straussians want to revive pagan sexuality?

Read Gadamer and Ricouer too

tbqh, I still have no understanding of his doctrines. Seems this Wizard of Poz was merely an academic of above average charisma, and organizing around him provided structure to a particular cabal of elites who were, in fact, united by a desire to preserve certain interests rather than promote a certain philosophy.