Leo Strauss: Preface to Hobbes's Politische Wissenschaft

Leo Strauss WISSENSCHAFT*

PREFACE TO HOBBES POLITISCHE Leo Strauss

The

in

present

Hobbes,

of

study

for

which now appears

first

the

time

German original, was composed in 1934-35 in England and published in 1936 in English translation. Ernest Barker wrote a the

for

preface which

now

may

The

the

leading

English

be

edition

replaced

thought

of

by

I

heard

I

still

the summer semester of

note,

caused me to take notice was

the

on

Enlightenment,

and the

introductory

comments:

arose from positive and lived in Germany. The first time

a way that Ebbinghaus

Julius

of

Reformation

following

Hobbes in

about

lectures

the

an

added

my Hobbes book

negative stimuli received while

the

I

and

social

in

given

1922. Ebbinghaus

teaching

in

the

of

im Breisgau in

Freiburg

appreciated

in

an uncon

in his

Hobbes; originality lively presentation, became not plastic but vital. He was any teaching merely thing but a Hobbesian; if my memory does not deceive me, he already believed at that time that the significant part of ["aufgehoben"] the Kantian teaching had been "sublated ventional

the

way

of

Hobbes'

Hobbes'

in"

Carl

philosophy.

Ebbinghaus,

in

Schmitt,

Hobbes is

that

"by

far

only

truly

the

about

systematic

greatness

and

the

My the

corresponded

of

study

of

origins

significance

of

Spinoza's ology,

to

or

Hobbes began in

biblical

which

me

is

marked

Rosenzweig,

appeared

the

of orthodox

to

critique

be

victorious.

remained

the

Since

theme

than

of

agreement.

the

17th

the

time,

and

strength

investigation

namely

-awakening

Karl Barth

to

judgment

a

century, re

names of

Jewish

und

of

and

of of

the

Franz

investigate how far Christian

theological-political

deserved

problem

has

my investigations. As far as the political, the contrast between Hobbes and Spinoza

to me at that time to

their

the

it necessary

theology

then

especially, is concerned, seemed

by

to make

that

the context of an

in

criticism

Hobbes,

at

Theological-Political Treatise. The

for

the

Schmitt's judgment

political

taste my feelings in Hobbes. interest ened, understandably, my which

Political"

the greatest and perhaps

thinker."

the

to

opposition

of

(Archiv fur Sozialwissenschaft

Politischen"]

Sozialpolitik, 1927),

unconscious

in his essay, "The Concept

asserted

["Der Begriff des

quite

be

more

important,

more

illuminating,

In any case, I believed that I had

learned,

Interpretation

2 through apercus

first study of Hobbes, that the prior had not done justice to what is decisive in him. my

When

I

and

a

fate

that was

in

gained

this

in

access to

way

way kind drove

a certain

England

me to

be

cannot

sources which

and

accounts

studied

limit my work to an analysis same of the teaching of the mature Hobbes but to investigate at the been formed in had source this from what time how and teaching elsewhere, I

saw the

Hobbes'

This double

mind.

not to

opportunity

intention

the

gave

present

study its

character.

Philosophic interest in theology linked me with Gerhard Kriiger; his review of my Spinoza book expressed my intention and result more

clearly

Kant

book,2

time

and

than

I

myself

the

why I did

necessity

I

which

agree, explains why I and

still

would

directed

The final

sentence

completely

to

today,

certain

with

my

view

of

his

that

at

reservations,

"true

to the

myself

politics"3

wholly Hobbes as a Hobbesian. Insight into

not write about

of

done.1

corresponded

which

with

had

the

understanding

dispute

of

the ancients and the

thoroughly and more exactly than had previously been done, before one decided for the modern or the ultra-modern, linked me with Jacob Klein; his "Die griechische Logistik und die (Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Entstehung der moderns

more

Algebra"

1-2),4

a Physik, Band 3, Heft masterly received the dis exemplary investigation led by this insight,

Mathematik, Astronomie and

tinction of

but-silent As far

being

und

passed over

in

near

in

total silence

our

everything-

era. as

defects

the

of the

far

present

book

concerned, I

are

have

they have become known, in Nat ural Right and V, A) and in my critique of Polin's History Hobbes Book {What is Political Philosophy?, pp. 170-96). Only in the latter publication (p. 176, note) did I succeed in laying bare the corrected

tacitly

them,

so

as

(Chapter

simple

leading

reasons

his

to

scurity.

Hobbes'

of

Hobbes himself conclusions,

stated

of the

never

while

His obscurity is,

What I edition

thought

of

.

cal

.

Philosophy

1952).]

presuppositions

present

are

shrouded

in

ob

in every respect involuntary. in the Preface to the American

course, not

thirteen years ago

book I

[The remaining three translation of the "Preface .

his

teaching about man. For obscure did this; his famous clarity is limited

will

still

allow

paragraphs of

to the

American

of Hobbes (Chicago:

to stand.

I

said then

this preface are a Edition"

University

of of

German

The Politi

Chicago Press,

*Neuwied The

been

from

Rhein

am

translation

the

bibliography

1975, does

not

Berlin: Hermann Luchterhand

Verlag, 1965. all footnotes have

und

"Preface"

by

by

Donald J. Maletz;

translation

has benefitted considerably

Joseph Cropsey.

of writings

indicate

is

The

translator.

suggestions made

The

3

of the

by

supplied

Hobbes politische Wissenschaft

that the

Leo Strauss in Interpretation,

by

German

edition of

this work

is

V/2, Winter,

by

preceded

a

new preface.

Acknowledgment is gratefully

for

permission

1

Kriiger's

extended to

review of

Strauss'

zu

Akademie

The last

Chicago Press

of

several

paragraphs of

als

Grundlage

seiner

Spinozas Theologisch-politischen Traktat

Verlag, 1930) is in Heft 51 (December 20), p. 2407. 2

University

Die Religionskritik Spinozas

Bibelwissenschaft: Untersuchungen

(Berlin:

the

to publish this translation.

1931,

Deutsche Literaturzeitung,

the

Kriiger's Philosophie

und

Moral in der

Kant-

Verlag J. C.B. Mohr, 1931), attempt to state the basis in the light of the fact that, "philosophical, that is, unlimited Kant, "the aporias of the Enlightenment have become greater"; he argues

ischen Kritik (Tubingen:

for

questioning

a

since

that

"Kant's

problem

opposition of

in life itself which

the

as

new

with

and

sharpness,

Enlightenment

while

has become

"The

the

living

fed, has disappeared

and

and

that

unpenetrated

prominent

in

thought as

unifying tradition,

been

replaced

by

the

upon

histori

sentences of the book may be translated be in if it inquires into the unlimited, only reality in the knowledge of the historical passion. Let the answer to this question thus also the Christian answer of Augustine be left undecided. That the

of

follows: "The

good

'skepticism'

and

knowledge."

cism

in

contemporar

is thoroughly

'dogmatism'

decisive

question

thus

questions

3This

term

Immanuel

The concluding

question will

by

remains

occurs

Kant,

true,

even

the example of

if it finds

no answer, can

in Kant's "Zum Ewigen

Kleinere

be

taught

him

who

Socrates."

Schriften

zur

Frieden,"

Anhang, I,

end, in:

Geschichtsphilosophie Ethik

Karl Vorlander (Hamburg: Felix Meiner

und

162. See

Verlag, 1964), Kant, On History, ed. Lewis White Beck (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1963), p. 128. 4Jacob Klein, Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra, trans. Eva Brann (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1968).

Politik,

ed.

the translation of

"Perpetual

Peace"

in: Immanuel

p.