Leo Strauss's readings of historical figures in the philosophical tradition have been justly well explored; however, his relation to contemporary thinkers has not enjoyed the same coverage. In Leo Strauss and Contemporary Thought, an international group of scholars examines the possible conversations between Strauss and figures such as Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Charles Taylor, and Hans Blumenberg. The contributors examine topics including religious liberty, the political function of comedy, law, and the relation between the Ancients and the Moderns, and bring Strauss into many new and original discussions that will be of use to those interested in the thought of Strauss, the history of philosophy and political theory, and contemporary continental thought.

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionJeffrey A. BernsteinPart I: Arts of Reading and Seeing1. Liberalism and the Question: Strauss and Derrida on Politics and PhilosophyJade Larissa Schiff2. Purloined Letters-Lacan avec StraussMatthew J. Sharpe3. Seeing through Law: Phenomenological Thought in Soloveitchik and StraussJeffrey A. Bernstein4. Claude Lefort and Leo Strauss: On A Philosophical DiscourseIsabel RollandiPart II: History And Politics5. A Civil Encounter: Leo Strauss and Charles Taylor on Religious PluralismJessica L. Radin6. Care of the Self and the Invention of Legitimate Government: Foucault and Strauss on Platonic Political PhilosophyMiguel Vatter7. A Fruitful Disagreement: The Philosophical Encounter between George P. Grant and Leo StraussWaller R. Newell8. Strauss and Blumenberg on the Caves of the ModernsDanilo Manca9. Writing the Querelle des Anciens et Modernes: Leo Strauss and Ferdinand Tönnies on Hobbes and the Sociology of PhilosophyPeter GostmannPart III: Culture and Critique10. Leo Strauss and Jürgen Habermas: The Quest for Reason in Twentieth-Century LifeworldsRodrigo Chacón11. Heidegger's Challenge to the Renaissance of Socratic Political RationalismAlexander S. Duff12. The Wheel of History: Nihilism as Moral Protest and Destruction of the Present in Leo Strauss and Albert CamusIngrid L. Anderson13. Who's Laughing? Leo Strauss on Comedy and MockeryMenachem Feuer14. Leo Strauss and Walter Benjamin: Thinking "In a Moment of Danger"Philipp von WussowAbout the ContributorsIndex