On modernity: Leo Strauss's critical understanding

Abstract

In the midst of his project to rescue classical political philosophy, Leo Strauss ended up establishing himself as a severe critic of modernity. His research quest starts from the realization that there is a “crisis” in modernity. Therefore, understanding Strauss' thought necessarily involves understanding the phenomenon he sought to criticize. This research aims to explore not only what Strauss effectively understood by modernity – a phenomenon that, to deny classical political philosophy, presented itself in three different waves –, but also intends to make explicit the central elements of the modern phenomenon in the reading made by Strauss, where positivism, historicism and nihilism stand out. Thus, the article, through the analysis of Strauss' work, in dialogue with the work of commentators, intends to present an overview of the modern philosophical mentality as Strauss understood and described it. However, the understanding of the critique of modernity, in Strauss, revealed itself, paradoxically, as a defense of a modern regime: Liberal democracy could redeem modernity, but it owed its solid foundation to classical political thought. This was what Strauss sought to demonstrate, challenging the dominant political science of his time. Therefore, we will see that Strauss, arguing for a return to the classics, in fact, was articulating the defense – and not the rejection – of modern liberal democracy.