.Study and Critique of Hermeneutics of Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss held that the essence of society is opinion and the essence of philosophy is knowledge and thought of these two as rivals; thus, he maintained that philosopher has to use esotericism and writing between lines to avoid persecution. Doing so, Strauss advanced a kind of hermeneutics which is invented for interpreting philosophical texts. One could find supportive idea to this hermeneutics in works of Plato, Farabi, Avicenna, Suhrawardi, Ghazali and others; but, there are, at the same time, a number of problems which Strauss’ hermeneutics face them: first of all, there are philosophers who hold opinions by strictly adhere to other philosophers thoughts rather than seeking knowledge; secondly, a long-lasting tradition of philosophical commentaries and interpretation undermine Strauss’, because it is not reasonable that a philosopher do not have enough courage and bravery to express their idea but commentators have; thirdly, a significant number of philosophers have not used esotericism in the ancient times, those philosophers weaken the universality of Strauss’ hermeneutics. In this paper, it is showed that hermeneutics of Leo Strauss is authentic for some ancient philosopher, but it could not be used as a general theory of interpretation for any given philosopher and philosophical school.