Politische Philosophie versus Geschichtsphilosophie. Leo Strauss’ Interpretation von Husserls "Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft"

CICCARELLI, PIERPAOLO

2017-01-01

---

Abstract

In a late article, Strauss interpreted Husserl's essay "Philosophy as Rigorous Science" in order to understand the contribution of Husserl's phenomenology to political philosophy. The article has an autobiographical character: Strauss aimed to show how Husserl's critique of the “philosophy of Weltanschauung" had indicated to him the peculiar difficulty each philosophy must face, that of resisting the “temptation” to become a "philosophy of Weltanschauung", i. e. to join a particular ideology. Thus, "political philosophy" has to be understood as the awareness of such a “temptation.” So understood, it (Heidegger’s, for example) reveals itself to be the opposite of the "philosophy of history” by making absolute its own historical moment and becoming blind to its own unavoidable entanglement in political conflicts.