Richard L. Velkley is the Celia Scott Weatherhead Professor of Philosophy at Tulane University and the author of Being after Rousseau: Philosophy and Culture in Question and Freedom and the End of Reason: On the Moral Foundation of Kant's Critical Philosophy.
"In Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy, Richard
Velkley analyzes the crisis of Western philosophical traditions in
the twentieth century and the different ways in which, in their
epoch-making works, Heidegger and Strauss grappled with it. In this
penetrating study, Velkley offers an original perspective on both
Heidegger's critique of tradition and Strauss's assessment of that
critique. He examines Heidegger's aim to renew the fundamental
question of Being and, in light of its ancient Greek origins, to
wrest it from the grip of later intellectual traditions, and he
reevaluates the widely held opinion that Strauss's concern for
political philosophy entailed a turn away from such metaphysical
questions. Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy
provides profound insight into two seminal thinkers as well as the
problematic relation between philosophy and political thought in
our contemporary world."--Jeffrey Andrew Barash, University of
Picardie
"In this clearly written and compelling study, Richard Velkley not
only concisely clarifies Leo Strauss's philosophical relation to
Heidegger, but also enacts the critical philosophy that Strauss
sought to revive. In elucidating Strauss's conception of the aporia
of ancient philosophy, Velkley offers a graceful and nuanced
account of Strauss's skeptical attempt to overcome historicism and
to do justice to the particularity of the philosopher's quest for
the universal. As such, this is an important book for anyone
interested in the scope and meaning of modern philosophy."--Leora
Batnitzky, Princeton University
"Richard Velkley has succeeded in writing a remarkable study about
the intellectual impact of one of the master thinkers of the
twentieth century."--Manfred Henningsen "Review of Politics"
"I have found Richard Velkley's book to be a fascinating and
informative entrée into the topic of the political, as viewed from
a philosophical perspective. Velkley's book shines a critical
spotlight on Martin Heidegger's thinking about the political, by
bringing to the foreground a specific vision of politics developed
by a contemporary who was both influenced by Heidegger and yet
ultimately diverged from him, Leo Strauss. In this regard,
Velkley's hook provides a major contribution to the ongoing
conversation on this topic which, regrettably, often bogs down into
various polemics."
--Frank Schalow "Existentia"
"In brilliant fashion Velkley lays out a reading of Heidegger and
Strauss that acknowledges the centrality of this neglected
conversation to contemporary political thinking. Moreover, he makes
a case for attending to the dynamics of this conversation as a
radical questioning concerning the origins of the human situation
within the 'cave' of political life. Yet Velkley also understands
that this questioning is inseparable from our openness to the
enigmatic whole of our ontological situation that goes beyond
politics. Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy offers
a fresh, bold approach to timely philosophical questions and does
so with equanimity and grace."--Charles Bambach, University of
Texas, Dallas
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