Leo strauss on thomas hobbes and plato: Two previously unpublished lectures

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a considerable increase of interest in the thought and writings of Leo Strauss. This renewed interest has led to the discovery and publication of writings and lectures which heretofore have been available only to few scholars. The following two recently discovered lectures on Plato’s Republic (1958) and Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1962) were originally delivered by Leo Strauss in the Works of the Mind lecture series at the University of Chicago. In these transcripts one finds sharper and franker formulations of the issues discussed in Strauss’ published writings; they depict Strauss’ efforts in trying different approaches and lines of inquiry which provide the reader with fresh and fascinating glimpses into Strauss’s philosophical development and intellectual odyssey.