Leo Strauss Biography

Leo Strauss was a German–American philosopher and classicist, who is remembered for his works in the domain of classical political philosophy. He was a German Jew who later migrated to the United States and never went back to his homeland due to the rise of the ‘Nazis.’ Most of his career was spent as a professor of political science at the ‘University of Chicago.’ He was initially trained in neo-Kantian philosophy and worked with renowned German philosopher Ernst Cassirer. Strauss also studied the works of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. Later, he focused on the Greek writings of Plato and Aristotle. He aimed at researching the medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy of their works and tried applying them to contemporary political theory. He died of pneumonia at the age of 74 but still lives through his works, especially his attempt at distinguishing between exoteric and esoteric writing; his critique of historicism, moral relativism, and nihilism; and his study of the relationship between reason and revelation.