On Tyranny is Leo Strauss' classic reading of Xenophon's dialogue Hiero, or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny. Included are a translation of the dialogue from its original Greek, a critique of Strauss' commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojeve, and the complete correspondence between the two. This corrected and expanded edition introduces important revisions throughout and expands Strauss' restatement of his position in light of Kojeve's commentary to bring it into conformity with the text as it was originally published in France.
Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was one of the preeminent political philosophers of the twentieth century. He is the author of many books, among them The Political Philosophy of Hobbes, Natural Right and History, and Spinoza's Critique of Religion, all published by the University of Chicago Press. Victor Gourevitch is the William Griffin Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Wesleyan University Michael S. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University and the author of several books, including Memory, Trauma, and History.
Title: On Tyranny: Corrected and Expanded Edition, Including the Strauss-Kojève Correspondence
Author: Strauss, Leo
ISBN: 9780226030135
Binding:
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 2013-10-18
Number of Pages: 358
Weight: 0.6125 kg
Through Strauss's interpretation, Xenophon appears to us as no longer the somewhat dull and flat author we know, but as a brilliant and subtle writer, an original and profound thinker. What is more, in interpreting this forgotten dialogue, Strauss lays bare great moral and political problems that are still ours. (Alexandre Kojeve) On Tyranny is a complex and stimulating book with its 'parallel dialogue' made all the more striking since both participants take such unusual, highly provocative positions and so force readers to face substantial problems in what are often wholly unfamillar, even shocking ways. (Robert Pippin, History and Theory)
