The Critique of Contemporary Historicism in Leo Strauss

Strauss sees historicism as what in some respects has sadly come to crystallize the sidelining of the transcendent from the reality of human affairs. Convinced that political philosophy is a quest for the best political regime or the overcoming of actuality Strauss'' philosophical gesture is inscribed in the metahistorical and transcendent horizon.The analysis that Sylvain Kambala offers us is a faithful reading of a well-defined selection of Strauss''s texts based on his hypothesis of contemporary historicism as a major adversary of political philosophy. This position is explained within the framework of a polarity between the Ancients (Plato and a certain vision of political philosophy) and the Moderns (the abandonment of Platonic philosophy by a whole modernity staged by Strauss as a history of decline). The book is devoted to the presentation and critique of historicism in order to achieve a recovery of the authentic political philosophy advocated by Strauss.