Bin Laden Backfire

by eager beaver - if its a polka or waltz I can dance! Mon Jan 23, 2006 15:34

Coz I'm not upto scratch on the lingo the next generation of intellektshuals use. So I looked it up on wikipedia just in case my first impression was wrong. (that a "straussian" would be a dedicated fan perhaps even interpretor of the music of the various Strauss composers. But instead wikipedia informed me :-

"Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973), was an American conservative political philosopher of German-Jewish extraction, who specialized in the revitalization of classical philosophy and founded an intellectual school, Straussianism, during his decades at the University of Chicago.
Q. What might Straussianism be?
A. The following are often described as "Straussian": George Anastaplo, Seth Benardete, Walter Berns, Allan Bloom, Charles Butterworth, Joseph Cropsey, Werner Dannhauser, Martin Diamond, Paul Eidelberg, Francis Fukuyama, Hilail Gildin, Harry V. Jaffa, Leon Kass, Irving Kristol, William Kristol, Ralph Lerner, Harvey Mansfield, Jr., Roger Masters, Thomas Pangle, Stanley Rosen, and Herbert Storing.
Some of the above scholars described least controversially as "Straussian" sometimes take affront to the epithet.
1. Strauss on Reading. There is an insistence on very literal translations of texts; a Heideggerian emphasis that a reader must attempt to understand an author as he understood himself before evaluating a text; a keen eye for following argumentation immersed in the narrative of a text; valuing excellence and virtue of man; and a desire to consider what is not written (or what is omitted) to be nearly as significant as what is written.
2. Strauss was notably skeptical of modernism and the idea that what is written more recently supersedes what is older. Strauss and some of his students have rehabilitated several historical thinkers who had been ignored or dismissed as political thinkers. Amongst the most important are Al-Farabi, Xenophon, Aristophanes, and Machiavelli.
Some people speak of "East Coast" and "West Coast" "Straussians"--the former represented by the late Allan Bloom and the latter by Harry V. Jaffa. Generally speaking, West Coast Straussians (a number of whom, like Jaffa, are affiliated with California's Claremont McKenna College) view Strauss's philosophy as compatible with the ideals of the American Revolution, while East Coast Straussians are more skeptical of liberal democracy. According to Jaffa, Bloom saw Strauss's esoteric teachings as similar to Strauss's own interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche. The East-West distinction is primarily an outgrowth of a personal debate between two individuals rather than a formal division."

Now it makes sense. I understand that there's no connection to the composers of the same names, which in my day were "Straussian".

Christoph Strauss (around 1580–1631), composer
Franz Strauss (1822–1905), horn player and composer
Isaac Strauss, French composer
Richard Strauss (1864–1949), German composer of the Late Romantic, wrote Also sprach Zarathustra
Oscar Straus (1870–1954), Austrian composer of operettas
Johann Strauss I (Strauß) Senior, the Elder, Father (1804–1849)
∞ 1825 Maria Anna Streim (1801–1870)

Johann Strauss II (Strauß) Junior, the Younger, Son, "Waltz King" (1825–1899)
Anna Strauss (1829–1903)
Therese Strauss (1831–1915)
Ferdinand Strauss (1834–1834)
Josef Strauss (Strauß, 1827–1870)
Eduard Strauss (Strauß, 1835–1916)
Johann Strauss III (Strauß, 1866–1939)

or even the Nazi Richard Strauss (1864–1949), German composer of the Late Romantic, wrote Also sprach Zarathustra
who is still banned in Israel.
Of course I still remember english before "religiosity" was invented, and "gay" meant happy.

by leo Mon Jan 23, 2006 16:07

This might help:

http://www.alternet.org/story/15935/