An analysis of Leo Strauss's difficult and relatively neglected criticism of Max Weber in Natural Right and History reveals the fundamental difficulties that political science, and social science more generally, must overcome in order to be a genuine science. In Strauss's view, the inadequacy of the fact-value distinction, which is now widely acknowledged, compels a re-examination of Weber's denial of the possibility of valid knowledge of values. Strauss identifies the serious ground of this denial as Weber's insight that modern philosophy or science cannot refute religion. Believing that philosophy or science cannot ultimately give an account of itself that meets the challenge of religion, Weber maintained a “tragic” view of the human situation. Strauss also expresses profound doubt about the possibility of philosophy or science, but ultimately he suggests that a certain kind of study of the history of political philosophy might resolve the conflict between philosophy and divine revelation, and, therewith, the “value problem.”
Leo Strauss revitalized the potential of political philosophy, which had been buried by positivism and historicism. Strauss was both impressed by and dissatisfied with the contemporary criticism of rationalism. Studying the history of political philosophy, he discovered that classical rationalism is not open to the criticism of rationalism because it does not begin by assuming the goodness of philosophy. Classical political philosophy overcomes nihilism not by proving the existence of universal rules of conduct, but by seeing what is highest in man. Modern philosophers departed from the classical approach in an unsuccessful attempt to meet the challenge of revealed religion. This failure led them to engage in a political-scientific project whose ultimate purpose was to refute revealed religion. Although the project failed, it led to the concealment of the most fundamental problems of human beings. The recovery of those problems is Strauss's great legacy.The ancients "would therefore advise the moderns rather to raise their own side of the hill than dream of pulling down that of the ancients; to the former of which they would not only give license, but also largely contribute." Swift (1704) quoted in Strauss (1945)
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