#booktok #philosophy #literature #literarytheory #hermeneutics #heidegger #leostrauss Professor Timothy H. Wilson Department of English, University of Ottawa ENG 3375 -- Contemporary Literary Theory Week 10 An introduction to the thought of Leo Strauss. The lecture begins with a discussion of how Strauss’s point of departure is profoundly shaped by the existential analytic of Dasein undertaken by Martin Heidegger. Under the influence of Heidegger, Strauss felt genuine political philosophy needed to eschew scientific and theoretical categories that can screen us from the political phenomena as they genuinely arise. In order to recover an ability to take a “natural” standpoint to political phenomena, Strauss urges a return to classical political philosophy and its concern with the Good as the ultimate ends of political life. This “natural” standpoint has been obscured by the modern break from the classical tradition. The “Three Waves of Modernity” are discussed in the lecture. The lecture then outlines Strauss’s discovery of Esotericism, in particular emphasizing how this discovery enables a genuine return to the thought of the classical tradition and acts as an argument against the main tenets of historicism. The lecture ends with a summary of the commonalities and distinctions between Heidegger’s “Destruktion” of the concealed tradition and Strauss’s “Esoteric” reading of the tradition. Powerpoint slides for this lecture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OGwc8P244jxMGPWMarXF7aPM8uweLUkJ/view?usp=drive_link Course Web site: https://sites.google.com/site/untergehenproject/courses/contemporary-literary-theory-2025-26 0:00 - Introduction 0:42 - The Crisis of Modernity 2:13 - Return to Classical Political Rationalism 2:52 - Philosophical Esotericism 4:49 - Strauss and Neoconservativism 6:57 - Heidegger and Strauss 9:00 - Strauss's Encounter with Heidegger: The Aristotle Lectures of 1922 12:40 - Impact of Heidegger: "the only great thinker of our time" 14:50 - Beyond Subjectivism: Critique of Neo-Kantianism, Break with Ernst Cassirer 18:07 - Heidegger's Analytic of Being-in-the-World 20:46 - Strauss's Analytic of Political Being-in-the-World (the "natural" standpoint) Related Videos: https://youtu.be/jWps2AkdcfE?si=v6JZWS-fXPjOIBal&t=1 (Literary Theory) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHwZl6kC5zs&list=PLVnV4NOfHN4V5cobHCvVQWiH63dR5z6Ml&index=2&pp=iAQBsAgC (History of Theory) https://youtu.be/Ugho9Pk4V6Q?si=MgU4mT91lyP-bK5q (Nietzsche) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuU_CexrjHA&list=PLVnV4NOfHN4V5cobHCvVQWiH63dR5z6 Ml&index=9&pp=iAQBsAgC (Saussure) https://youtu.be/xBpXw1CBOCA?si=WcYgVflOpXAkVk06 (Freud) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Ok4Dc0154 (Marx) https://youtu.be/gQ_0v8CRlhQ?si=bW1rECM_ng8yLvDm&t=1 (Hermeneutics) https://youtu.be/STrXSANPWE8?si=6YhtVTo95AnAeEcX&t=1 (Heidegger) https://youtu.be/XAN7TqBZIh4?si=LXJXoOfe-MOgV0BX&t=1 (Heidegger, Destruktion) https://youtu.be/iYl9Ev5UVok?si=QYKUvZOGxC6PzQpA&t=1 (Gadamer) https://youtu.be/2RsoS2917N0?si=TV-Y5pokrG884YLw&t=1 (LS and the Three Waves) https://youtu.be/G0Xho-swi7o?si=jO1ev9unRsKLZmDx (Machiavelli and the First Wave) https://youtu.be/ux4EVsurjKE?si=bkCsblnhA9srRdlI (Second Wave and History) https://youtu.be/LhSz4jeH6Cw?si=Lln9mEo0l3EmS4zL (Nietzsche and the Third Wave) https://youtu.be/LAAHbV-9UWc?si=ioId6o_B20JYS87Q (Esotericism) Detailed Lecture Notes on Heidegger: Martin Heidegger (1889-1976): An Introduction: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZMYrICl7XGkd_hX1f336jah-_D2J2rFb/view?usp=sharing Heidegger's Being and Time (1927): An Introduction: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-EvkUjrQfGa6nQnxjs-G2zZvO2cjtd1s/view?usp=drive_link Martin Heidegger on Modern Science: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-ehWDYDras8WipX-M7wmqMECTL6Y7MKX/view?usp=drive_link Heidegger’s “On the Essence of Truth”: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qHEpxxur5_z3DiWGuBnDr1Eg8OAKhstn/view?usp=sharing Heidegger’s “The Origin of the Work of Art”: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QwroB0lanYa3rD-Pwu2H20zh9Ri1sJ7X/view?usp=sharing Heidegger’s Deconstruction of Plato: “Plato’s Doctrine of Truth”: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o4Y2t0c42OXicT0E564nlW5BSTo22ObS/view?usp=sharing Heidegger’s “The Question Concerning Technology”: https://drive.google.com/file/d/186CKil0U8y-R7FqXRmwCh_lb87VjAhsb/view?usp=drive_link