Modern Political Philosophy

1154 Words5 Pages
Ancient & Modern Political Philosophy When Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle spoke of politics they spoke in terms of the regime and of the best regime. To properly unlock this term, we have to turn to Leo Strauss, a pathfinder among modern political philosophy insofar as he understood and articulated the ancient and modern’s dialogue. Since political philosophy is the “noble science” and the deals with the highest of human goods, it is a primary place for understanding the differences in ancient and modern thought. In ancient thought or classical political philosophy the primary question was one of the best regime. Classical political philosophy is guided by the question of the best regime. Leo Strauss touches upon the term regime and its importance amongst the ancients. 1. Cause & Effect The problem of speaking of laws rests on the fact there are various types of legislative bodies. The laws are dependent upon the legislator(s), and monarchies, democracies, oligarchies, and any mixture thereof differ in legislative methods. Consequently, the focus shifts from the laws to the legislators and to all the factors that define them. As Strauss articulates: The legislator is the governing body, and the character of the governing body depends on the whole social and political order, the politician, the regime. A proper focus on law inevitably leads to a focus on the regime, because the regime is the cause and the laws are the effect. 2. Regime: “A Specific Manner of Life” Strauss comments that the “regime is the order, the form, which gives society its character.” He goes on to note: Regime is the form of life as living together, the manner of living of society and in society… Regime means that whole, which we today are in the habit of viewing primarily in a fragmentized form: regime means simultaneously the form of life of a society, its style
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