Abstract
Naturally, we have heard the accusation that has arisen recentlythat Leo Strauss was really a furtive Nietzschean nihilist andatheist operating under the esoteric cover of discussions of NaturalRight and Revelation.1 Surprisingly, we also have an expandingliterature on Strauss as a ""Jewish thinker.""2 My position is thatStrauss was neither a Nietzschean nihilist nor a Jewish thinker. Hewas primarily trying to rethink the nature of philosophy and what itcould be in the future. This rethinking took on a ""political"" elementbecause Strauss saw philosophy in its origins as born out of aconfrontation between philosophy and the city. And in its presentsituation, Strauss saw philosophy as endangered by the modernlonging for the End of History and the abolition of the political thisimplied. Strauss's reflections on day to day political matters were nothis primary focus; those reflections were derivative from his primaryconcerns regarding the nature and future of philosophy.
