1. Liberalism Ancient and Modern
Leo Strauss
(1968)
Cristina Varela, Ciencia Política (2009-1)
cristinavarela404@hotmail.com
1 of 15 10-2011

2. Contents
1. Concepts
2. Power of education
3. Ideal of democracy and
democracy as it is
4. Perspectives of liberalism:
classic and modern doctrine
5. Preface to Spinoza's critique
of religion: Teologico-
Political predicament
6. Critical view 1.What is liberal education
2.Liberal education and responsibility
3.The liberalism of classical political philosophy
7. Index 4.On the Minos
5.Notes on Lucretius
6. How to begin to study the guide of the perplexed
7.Marsilius of Padua
8.An Epilogue
9.Preface to Spinoza's critique of religion
Cristina Varela 2 10. Perspectives on the good society

3. Concepts
Liberalism
Conservatism
Communism
Liberal democracy
Progressivism
Classical and
Modern Political
Philosophy
Cristina Varela 3 G.Almond

4. Liberal Education
Liberal
Liberal education is education
education is
towards culture.
liberation from
Will consist in studying with
vulgarity
the proper care the great
'apeirokalia'
books which the greatest for the greeks
minds have left behind. A
study which the more
experienced pupils assist the Lack of experience in
less experienced pupils, things beautiful
including the beginners.
Cristina Varela 4

5. It cannot be simply
indoctrination
Liberal education is education in a variety of cultures.
Culture is any pattern of conduct common to any human group.
Liberal education is literate education: education in letters or
through letters.
Cristina Varela 5

6. Ideal of democracy
& democracy as it is
Modern Democracy:
Far from being universal aristocracy, would
be mass rule were it not for the fact that the
mass cannot rule, but is ruled by elites.
Democracy is then not indeed mass rule, but
mass culture.
Mass Culture is a culture
Elites: groupings of which can be appropriated
men who for what by the meanest capacities
ever reason are on without an intellectual an
top. moral effort, at a very low
monetary price.
Cristina Varela 6

7. "Liberal education is the
ladder by which we try to
ascend from mass
democracy to democracy
as originally meant.
Liberal education is the
necessary endeavor to
found an aristocracy within
democratic mass society."
La educación liberal es la escalera por la cual
ascendemos de la democracia de masa a la
democracia como fué originalmente concebida.
La educación liberal es el esfuerzo necesario
para fundar una aristocracia dentro de la
sociedad democrática de masas.
Cristina Varela 7

8. "Philosophy is quest
for wisdom or quest for
knowledge regarding
the most important, the
highest or the most
comprehensive things;
is virtue and is
Education in the
happiness". However, Monologues into Noesis
highest sense is
"Wisdom is a Dialogue Noeseos
philosophy. Plato
inaccessible to man,
and hence virtue and
understanding of understanding
happiness will be
Metatheory
always imperfect."
Philosophy vs Politics
Liberal Education demands
"By becoming aware of the the complete break with the
dignity of the mind, we Noise, Rush, cheapness,
thoughtlessness of the
realize the true ground of the Vanity Fair of the
dignity of man and there with intellectuals as well as of
their enemies.
the goodness of society."
Strauss 8

9. The word 'Liberal' always have had a political meaning,
is almost opposite to it's present political meaning.
Justice of a society
ruled by gentlemen
ruling their own right? Gentleman's
vs
Philosopher's
Just government is
government who rules
in the interest of the
whole society, and not
merely of a part. 9

10. Modern Doctrine
Starts from the natural equality of all men. Sovereignty belongs to the people.
Sovereignty as to guarantee the natural rights of each. It achieves this result by
distinguishing between the sovereign and the government and by demanding
that the fundamental governmental powers be separated from one another.
" Veo hombres piadosos que querrían sofocar la libertad, como si la
Classic Doctrine libertad, ese gran privilegio del hombre, no fuese una cosa casi santa.
Más allá veo otros que piensan llegar a ser libres atacando todas las
creencias; pero no veo a nadie que parezca percibir el vínculo estrecho
y necesario que une la república, la religión y la libertad."
Alexis de Toqueville
Cristina Varela 10

11. The liberal temper
POSITIVISM in Greek Politics
Sartre
EXISTENTIALISM "Siempre
habrá una diferencia no
pequeña entre sujetar a una
muchedumbre y gobernar
Havelock a una sociedad."
Natural Law:
Descartes the great
principles of
reason and
"The men who will hold
power will be the men of
equity. Burke
the learned professions."
"En toda comunidad tiene que
Hamilton haber una obediencia, bajo el
mecanismo de la constitución
estatal según leyes de
coacción, pero al mismo tiempo
un espíritu de libertad, puesto
que cada uno aspira a ser
Harm Principle convencido por la razón de que
esa coacción es conforme al
derecho, a fin de no caer en
contradicción consigo misma."
Mill 11

12. Aristotelian Political Science &
New Political Science
1. For Aristotle, political science is identical to political philosophy. New political philosophy argues
the distinction between philosophy and science.
2. No natural awareness is genuine knowledge. New political science is no longer based in political
experience, only scientific knowledge is genuine knowledge.
3. According to the Aristotelian political science, views political things in the perspective of the
citizen, it follows that language. The new political science cannot speak without having an
elaborated technical vocabulary.
4. Aristotelian political science evaluates political things. The new political science conceives of the
principle of action as 'values' which are merely 'subjective'.
5. Aristotelian man is the rational and political animal: zoonpolitikon/ connection between morality
and law. The whole consist of essentially different parts. The new political science in the other
hand is based on the fundamental premise that there are no essential differences: there are only
difference of degree. According to the universal science of which the new political science is
part, to understand a thing means to understand it in terms of its genesis or it's conditions. New
political science cannot admit that the common good is something that it is.
12

13. Theologico-Political
Predicament
"Theologico-political predicament" refers to the
ultimate results of the early modern attempt to
separate theology from politics.
Spinoza: natural difference between nature and
morality.
Everything that is, is natural. For Spinoza
there are no natural ends, there is no natural
end to man. A man end is not natural, but
rational.
13

14. Theologico-Political Epicureanism
Treatise Is hedonism, the classic
form of the critique of
religion. Is so radically
Spinoza cannot legitimately deny the mercenary that it
possibility of revelation. Philosophy, the conceives of theoretical
quest for evident and necessary doctrines as the means
knowledge, rest itself on an unevident for liberating the mind
decision, on an act of will, just as faith. from the terrors of
religion. Epicureanism
Hence the antagonism between Spinoza
fights the religious
and Judaism, between unbelief and 'delusion' because of its
belief, is ultimately not theoretical, but terrible character.
moral.
Modern Unbelief
Modern unbelief is no longer Epicurean.
Fights because it is a delusion: regardless of
wether religion is terrible or comforting, qua
delusion it makes men oblivious to the real
goods, of the enjoyment of the real goods,
and thus seduces them into being cheated of
the real.
14

15. Critical View
"The success of liberal politics and liberal
economics frequently rests on irrational forms of
recognition that liberalism was supposed to
overcome. For democracy to work, citizens need to
develop an irrational pride in their own democratic
institutions, and must also develop what Tocqueville
called the “art of associating,” which rests on
prideful attachment to small communities. These
communities are frequently based on religion,
ethnicity, or other forms of recognition that fall
short of the universal recognition on which the
liberal state is based. The same is true for liberal
economics. Labor has traditionally been understood
in the Western liberal economic tradition as an
essentially unpleasant activity undertaken for the
sake of the satisfaction of human desires and the
relief of human pain." The end of history, Francis
Fukuyama.
15

16. State of World Freedom in 2009
Free (89)
Partly
Free (58)
Not Free
(47)
Map reflecting the findings of Freedom House's 2010 survey, concerning the
state of world freedom in 2009, which correlates highly with other measures
of democracy . Some of these estimates are disputed.
16

17. Index of Recommended
Names Bibliography
Índice Onomástico Bibliografía recomendada
Aristotle
Ackerman, Bruce: La justicia social en el Estado liberal
Bacon, Francis
Aristóteles: La política., Ética a Nicómaco
Burke, Edmund
Bentham, Jeremy: Anarchical Fallacies
Cohen, Hermann
Buchanan, James: Social choice, Democracy and free
Comte, Auguste
markets.
Democritus
Constant,Benjamin: De la liberatad de los antiguos
Descartes, René
comparada con la de los modernos.
Epicurus
Gardner, Ron: The strategic inconsistenciy of Paretian
Goethe
Liberalism.
Hamilton, Alexander
Habermas, Jürgen: The structural transformation of the public
Havelock, Eric A.
sphere., Conciencia moral y acción comunicativa.
Hegel, Georg
Hume, David: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding,
Heidegger, Martin
Treatise of Human Nature.
Herzl, Theodor
Herlz, Theodor: The Jew's State.
Hobbes, Thomas
Kant, Emmanuel: Teoría y Praxis., Fundamentación para una
Kant, Emmanuel
teoría de las costumbres.
Kojève, Alexandre
Locke, John: Some Thoughts Concerning Education.,
Locke, John
Federalist Papers
Lucretius
Mill, John Stuart: Sobre la libertad.
Machiavelli
Nietzsche, Friedrich: Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Maimonides
Nozick, Robert: Anarquía, Estado y Utopía.
Marx, Karl
Platón: La República.
Mill, J. St.
Polanyi, Michael: Life's irreductible structure.
Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, Baron
Rawls, John: La justicia como equidad., Teoría de la justicia, El
Nietzsche, Friedrich
liberalismo político.
Plato
Rousseau, Jean Jacques: El Contrato Social.
Protagoras
Spinoza, Baruch de: Tratado Teológico Político., La Ética
Rosenzweig, Franz
Strauss, Leo: On tyranny: Tyranny and wisdom, Alexander
Rousseau, Jean Jaques
Kojéve., leostrausscenter.uchicago.edu
Spinoza
Toqueville, Alexis de: La Democracia en América.
Thomas Aquinas
Wollstonecraft, Mary: A vindication of men rights.
Thucydides
17