History and Historicism
The thinking of Leo Strauss and Karl Popper is by no means identical. It is enough to mention that Strauss was a great admirer of Plato, while…
Laurence Lampert and the Problem of Reason and Revelation
World renowned Nietzsche scholar Laurence Lampert passed away in 2024. A Canadian born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and teaching from 1970 to 2005 at Indiana University, Lampert influenced…
The Inseparable Marriage: Athens and Jerusalem
While central to Western conceptions of time, history did not commence with the birth of Christ. Centuries of pagan culture, art, and thought laid a foundation that…
Souls Without Longing
"Then who, Diotima, are the philosophisers,” [said Socrates], “if they are neither the wise nor those who lack understanding?” “By now it is perfectly plain even to…
Plato, Nietzsche, and Strauss in Beijing
In the spring of 2015, Professor Liu Xiaofeng of Renmin University in Beijing invited Laurence Lampert to give a series of lectures at three of China’s leading universities. The purpose…
What We Get Wrong About Nietzsche’s Nihilism
Friedrich Nietzsche’s name is often associated with the term “nihilism.” For many, Nietzsche provides a particularly acute articulation of the nihilistic perspective. For these interpreters, Nietzsche rips…
Why Read Plato, Nietzsche, and Strauss?
Plato, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Leo Strauss need no introduction to students of philosophy, especially students of political philosophy. Although these three figures are well-known and well-read, have…
Eric Voegelin and his Interlocutors
The Eric Voegelin Institute hosted a three part webinar series on Eric Voegelin and his interlocutors. This series included commentary on the relationship of Eric Voegelin with…
Locke’s Religion: Foundation or Façade?
As the cracks and fissures within our society become visible, we see increasing debate about our society’s foundational principles of classical liberalism, and the man at the…
The Need for a New Socrates: A Review of Ann Ward’s “The Socratic Individual”
Ann Ward. The Socratic Individual: Philosophy, Faith, and Freedom in a Democratic Age. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2020. What can account for the renewal of interest in…
Saving Orthodoxy from Leo Strauss and Baruch Spinoza: A Review of “Strauss, Spinoza & Sinai”
Strauss, Spinoza & Sinai. Edited by Jeffrey Bloom, Alec Goldstein, and Gil Student. New York: Kodesh Press, 2022. Let’s begin with a story. As an undergraduate…
Leo Strauss as Poet (A True Story)
Why would the story have been left untold? Because it was absurd? Or…because it did not fit the deep-seated expectations, the lingering prejudices of our times? The…
Philosophy and the Beyond
"The philosophies of this world are blind to true divinity—the living God”. This introductory proposition summarizes a traditional indictment of Christianity as represented most notably by Saint…
What Can Political Science Learn from Literature?
Since the behavioral revolution in the 1960s, political science has increasingly defined itself as the empirical, quantifiable study of politics.[2] Modeled after the natural sciences, behavioralism is…
Nomos, Nature, and Modernity in Brague’s The Law of God
By looking at the historical paths of Greece, Israel, Christianity, and Islam, Brague’s The Law of God compares each civilization’s conceptions of law and divinity. For the…