Steven Lenzner is a political philosopher and scholar whose writing frequently engages with the thought of Leo Strauss and the tradition of political philosophy. He contributed essays and book reviews to The Weekly Standard from 1999 to 2017, covering topics in political theory, moral philosophy, and intellectual history. His work often examined the intersection of philosophy, politics, and the life of the mind.
In the new Justice League movie, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other superheroes from DC Comics join forces to (what else?) save the world. While Superman is not a leading character in the film, it all takes place in his shadow. If last year’s Batman v Superman depicted a world coping with the fact…
Ralph Lerner is a man of rare learning, biting wit, and deep thought. His virtues are well known to generations of students and colleagues at the University of Chicago, although he is not as prominent in the wider world as he deserves to be. The publication of this book should induce many more…
Ralph Lerner is a man of rare learning, biting wit, and deep thought. His virtues are well known to generations of students and colleagues at the University of Chicago, although he is not as prominent in the wider world as he deserves to be. The publication of this book should induce many more…
Students of Leo Strauss owe a debt of gratitude to Kenneth Hart Green and the University of Chicago Press for this volume.
What's So Funny?
The politics of hope? The politics of change? How about the politics of empathy? To judge from the 2008 campaign so far, a candidate could do worse than to promote herself, above all, as a person of feeling. Solicitude is--or is on the verge of becoming--the preeminent qualification for our…
Muhsin Mahdi, the world's foremost scholar of medieval Arabic and Islamic political philosophy, died last month at the age of 81. Not a single national publication has seen fit to print an obituary of Mahdi. This failure to do justice to a rare scholar, teacher, and human being underscores how…
Leo Strauss and the Theologico-Political Problem
Loose Lips
PLATO, AS EVERYONE KNOWS, once defined man as a "featherless biped." His student Aristotle insisted instead that man is by nature a political animal, a being whose capacity for speech compels him to live with others. So who’s right, ironic Plato or solid Aristotle? I can think of only one living…
The Modern Jewish Canon
Postmodernism Rightly Understood