In the winter of 1965, Leo Strauss taught a seminar on Hegel at the University of Chicago. While Strauss neither considered himself a Hegelian nor wrote about Hegel at any length, his writings contain intriguing references to the philosopher, particu...

Leo Strauss is known primarily for reviving classical political philosophy through careful analyses of works by ancient thinkers. As with his published writings, Strauss's seminars devoted to specific philosophers were notoriously dense, accessible o...

Although Leo Strauss published little on Nietzsche, his lectures and correspondence demonstrate a deep critical engagement with Nietzsche's thought. One of the richest contributions is a seminar on Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", taught in 1959...

"On Tyranny" is Leo Strauss's classic reading of Xenophon's dialogue "Hiero", or "Tyrannicus", in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny. Included are a translation of the dialogue...

Leo Strauss is widely recognized as one of the foremost interpreters of Maimonides. His studies of the medieval Jewish philosopher led to his rediscovery of esotericism and deepened his sense that the tension between reason and revelation was central...

Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) was the leading Jewish thinker of the German Enlightenment and the founder of modern Jewish philosophy. His writings, especially his attempt during the Pantheism Controversy to defend the philosophical legacies of Spinoz...

Leo Strauss's "The Political Philosophy of Hobbes" deservedly ranks among his most widely acclaimed works. In it Strauss argues that the basis for Hobbes's natural and political science is his interest in "self-knowledge of man as he really is". The...