An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays by Leo Strauss (Culture of Jewish Modernity)

What can I say? The book proudly proclaims by one of his obvious disciples in the introduction that Strauss has a better understanding of human nature than Marx or Freud. This is a big claim, and judging by the book's turgid nature, a laughable one.The book starts as a defence of political philosophy, which is not surprising. He attempts to explain why political philosophy has fell into disrepute. His criticisms point to the "positivists" and the "historicists", in that the positivists think all philosophy is evil (leading to modern social science), and that the historicists think that man cannot be separated from history, so no truths about man can be formulated (modern relativism).I actually agree with Strauss on this, but he his answer is this: read the Greeks. Why? Just because they are great, according to him.I cannot see the argument more complicated than this. This neo-conservative pseudo-argument is just an excuse to base anti-democratic sentimentality on people that died a long time ago.I would advise people to read people like Marx or Popper instead (yes Strauss, economics IS important, the state ISN'T about making people's character good - never has been, and never will be, unless you live in a totalitarian state).If this man is the savour of Western political philosophy, we are in deep trouble. This is the real "crisis of modernity".