Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1-1-2010 Leo Strauss and the Problem of Sein: The Search for a "Universal Structure Common to All Historical Worlds" Jennifer Renee Stanford Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Stanford, Jennifer Renee, "Leo Strauss and the Problem of Sein: The Search for a "Universal Structure Common to All Historical Worlds"" (2010). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 91. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.91 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible:
[email protected]. Leo Strauss and the Problem of Sein : The Search for a “Universal Structure Common to All Historical Worlds” by Jennifer R. Stanford A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Thesis Committee: David A. Johnson, Chair Richard H. Beyler Douglas Morgan Michael Reardon Portland State University © 2010 ABSTRACT Leo Strauss resurrected a life-approach of the ancient Greeks and reformulated it as an alternative to the existentialism of his age that grew out of a radicalized historicism. He attempted to resuscitate the tenability of a universal grounded in nature (nature understood in a comprehensive experiential sense not delimited to the physical, sensibly- perceived world alone) that was historically malleable. Through reengagement with Plato and Socrates and by addressing the basic premises built into the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger, Strauss resurrected poetry (art, or the mythos) that Enlightenment thinkers had discarded, and displayed its reasonableness on a par with the modern scientific approach as an animating informer of life.