Between Eternities On the Tradition of Political Philosophy

by Smith, Gregory Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780739120767
• ISBN10: 073912076X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-13
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Between Eternities reflects on the possibility of political philosophy as an ongoing, architectonic activity that is necessarily linked to both the past and future. Almost all contemporary work in political philosophy either studies the subject with an eye to past tradition_choosing a winner from that tradition and then deducing what follows from the posited premises in a thoroughly modern, constructivist fashion_or else limits itself to drawing out what follows from already accepted premises and principles. There is almost no effort to reflect upon the prerequisites for the tradition being an ongoing undertaking that can have a unique future. Between Eternities attempts to set loose that thinking toward the future.

Author Biography

Gregory Bruce Smith is professor of political science and philosophy and affiliated with the departments of political science and philosophy at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Political Philosophy; Is There a Future Tradition?	p. 1
Modern Constructivism or Phenomenology
Preface to Part 1: Modernity and Its Closure	p. 13
The "End of History" or a Portal to the Future: Does Anything Lie Beyond Late Modernity?	p. 17
What Is Political Philosophy: A Phenomenological Approach	p. 37
Machiavelli's The Prince and the Essence of Modernity	p. 65
Phenomenology or Constructivism: Robert Pippin's Modernity	p. 85
Cacophony or Silence: Derrida's Deconstructionism and the Possibility of Political Philosophy	p. 107
Leo Strauss and the Tradition; an Engagement
Preface to Part 2: Remembrance and Tradition	p. 147
Who Was Leo Strauss?	p. 151
Leo Strauss and the Straussians: An Anti-Democratic Cult?	p. 167
Athens and Washington: Leo Strauss and the American Regime	p. 187
On a Possible Epicurean Garden for Philosophy: Philosophy and the City in the Thought of Leo Strauss	p. 215
On Cropsey's World: Joseph Cropsey and the Tradition of Political Philosophy	p. 249
On the Tradition of Political Philosophy in the Future: Leo Strauss and Martin Heidegger	p. 279
The Non-Metaphysical Plato: Second Beginnings?
Preface to Part 3: Plato, Platonism, and a Second Beginning	p. 307
Dialogue and Dialectic in Plato's Phaedo: Plato as Metaphysician, Epistomologist, Ontologist and Political Philosopher	p. 313
Political Philosophy and Eros: Plato's Socrates in the Symposium	p. 337
Plato's Parmenides: Socratism and the Origins of Platonic Political Philosophy	p. 371
Between Platonism and Postmodernism: Plato's Emendation of Socratism in the Trilogy	p. 397
Aristotle on Reason and Its Limits	p. 433
Political Philosophy After Modernity?
Preface to Part 4: Openings Toward the Postmodern	p. 471
Legitimacy, International Morality and the Postmodern Global Future	p. 475
Jerusalem and Washington: Political Philosophy and Theology	p. 501
Ontology, Technology, Poetry or Mandarin Pastime? Theoretical Physics in the Postmodern Age	p. 529
The Queen of the Sciences: Political Philosophy or Biology?	p. 559
Political Philosophy and Environmentalism: Recovering the Phenomenon "Nature"	p. 589
Conclusion: Is There a Future?	p. 617
Index	p. 633
About the Author	p. 657
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