Leo Strauss and the reopening of the “quarrel between ancients and moderns”: the problem of a historicist social science
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31977/grirfi.v24i1.4745Keywords:
Leo Strauss; Social Science; Nihilism; Ancient and Modern; Historiscim.Abstract
The aim of this study is to show that the reopening of the “quarrel between the ancients and the moderns” proposed by Strauss is an invitation to rethink the format of social science of his time. In his interpretation, the triumph of positivism and historicism in the contemporary era directly influenced the consolidation of a kind of social science that was too technical and scientistic, far from its main object of research, the human life in society. As a result, it was established a nihilistic social science, attached to methods and a theorizing vocabulary, incapable of dealing with the complexity of the human world. I intend to show, based on the criticism elaborated by Professor Strauss, which alternatives are presented to rescue social science through the revival of specific elements of classical political science.
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