``..In 1921, Strauss went to the University of Hamburg, and completed his PhD, On Epistemology in the Philosophical Doctrine of F. H. Jacobi, which was supervised by Ernst Cassirer. The oral examination took place on 17 December 1921. Of the years that follow, Strauss later says, I can only say that Nietzsche so dominated and bewitched me between my 22nd and 30th years, that I literally believed everything that I understood of him...''
(http://members.tripod.com/Cato1/strauss-bio.htm)
What can I say? Fucking fascinating! Cassirer was his damned thesis adviser. In my mind this explains to me, where this bullshit about esoteric and exoteric readings of philosophy comes from. Well beside the obvious connection to religious scholasticism.
It must have appeared to more than just Strauss that Cassirer and others attempting to understand and construct a philosophical theory of culture, would seem to be delving into some sort of occultist mysteries---in effect secret readings of texts and artifacts. Certainly some of Heidegger's weird interpretations of the pre-Socratics fall into a related occult realm, i.e. specialist readings understood only by the initiated.
An interesting parallel in art and architectural studies can be seen in what happens when students first discover there is such a thing as the `golden section.' It appears as something like an occult secret, and I for one, went hog wild with the idea finding it everywhere---including of course some places where it actually was used!
For background, Cassirer started off as a philosopher of science and found within his studies of Einstein, Bohr, and others, a deep questioning of the foundation of both the Enlightenment and scientific rationalism (Modernity). Ideas like cultural relativism; the impossibility of separating linguistic structures from mental constructs and empirical observations and their deep linkages to mathematical ideas; the similarities of structure between languages, religions, and mythic systems in general---these and many other issues were debated among these people, in same time and location of Strauss's student days. In addition, Heidegger and Cassirer were in a high stakes academic competition for philosophical luminary of the period (I still haven't read the Davos debates).
Here is a quote from Cassirer on Jacobi (from vol 2, Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Mythical consciousness, 253p):
``...In Jacobi, who in his thinking seeks to fuse the basic elements of Hamann's metaphysical-symbolic world view with Kantian principles, the objective relationship here disclosed takes a subjective psychological-transcendental turn... All man's reason, since it is a passive perception, requires the help of the sensuous. The world of images and signs is always and necessarily interpolated as an intermediary between the human spirit and the essence of things.
`Always there is something between us and the true essence: feeling, image, and word. Everywhere we see only something that is hidden; but that hidden thing we see and sense. For what is seen and surmised we set the word, the living word, as a sign. There lies the dignity of the word. It does not itself reveal, but it shows revelation, consolidates it, and helps to disseminate it... ' ''
Anyway, I remember now why I didn't pay much attention to the first threads on Strauss and the Neocons. It was the mention of Trots and Zionism. Whenever I see those words in the same paragraph, I automatically suspect some twisted jewish conspiracy theory bullshit and just skip it.
Well, here's some completely petrified gossip from Correspondence Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers (1954, 241-7p):
``Do you know anything about Leo Strauss, who has written about Spinoza, an orthodox Jew of strong rational powers? Is he still alive?'' Karl Jaspers
``Leo Strauss is professor of political philosophy in Chicago, highly respected. Wrote a good book about Hobbes (as well as the one about Spinoza). Now another about natural law. He is a convinced orthodox atheist. Very odd. A truly gifted intellect. I don't like him. He must be in his middle or late fifties.'' Hannah Arendt
``What you say about Leo Strauss interests me. An atheist now? In his earlier books he appears as an orthodox Jew who is providing justification for authority. The style and tone of his books put me off, but what he writes is very informative.'' Karl Jaspers
Later when Arendt gave some guest lecture presentations on her Eichmann report, Strauss agitated against her.
It seems to me we went over something like this a couple of years ago when some other neocon was trying to re-construct Arendt as a nazi sympathizer or some such bullshit.
Chuck Grimes