Editing Neoconservatism (section)

=== Leo Strauss and his students<!-- Straussian Wilsonianism, Straussian idealism and Straussian Idealism redirect here. --> ===
[[C. Bradley Thompson]], a professor at Clemson University, claims that most influential neoconservatives refer explicitly to the theoretical ideas in the philosophy of [[Leo Strauss]] (1899–1973),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cato-unbound.org/2011/03/07/c-bradley-thompson/neoconservatism-unmasked |title=Neoconservatism Unmasked |date=7 March 2011 |access-date=6 November 2013 |archive-date=6 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006055910/https://www.cato-unbound.org/2011/03/07/c-bradley-thompson/neoconservatism-unmasked |url-status=live }}</ref> although there are several writers who claim that in doing so they may draw upon meaning that Strauss himself [[Leo Strauss#Response to criticism|did not endorse]]. Eugene Sheppard notes: "Much scholarship tends to understand Strauss as an inspirational founder of American neoconservatism".<ref>Eugene R. Sheppard, ''Leo Strauss and the politics of exile: the making of a political philosopher'' (2005), p. 1.</ref> Strauss was a refugee from Nazi Germany who taught at the [[New School for Social Research]] in New York (1938–1948) and the [[University of Chicago]] (1949–1969).<ref>Allan Bloom, "Leo Strauss: September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973", ''Political Theory'', November 1974, Vol. 2 Issue 4, pp. 372–92, an obituary and appreciation by one of his prominent students.</ref>

Strauss asserted that "the crisis of the West consists in the West's having become uncertain of its purpose". His solution was a restoration of the vital ideas and faith that in the past had sustained the moral purpose of the West. The [[Greek classics]] ([[classical republican]] and [[modern republican]]), [[political philosophy]] and the [[Judeo-Christian ethics|Judeo-Christian heritage]] are the essentials of the Great Tradition in Strauss's work.<ref>John P. East, "Leo Strauss and American Conservatism", [http://www.mmisi.org/ma/21_01/east.pdf ''Modern Age'', Winter 1977, Vol. 21 Issue 1, pp. 2–19 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111171310/http://www.mmisi.org/ma/21_01/east.pdf |date=11 January 2012 }}.</ref><ref>[http://www.aei.org/publication/leo-strausss-perspective-on-modern-politics/ "Leo Strauss's Perspective on Modern Politics"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627205541/https://www.aei.org/*/leo-strausss-perspective-on-modern-politics/ |date=27 June 2020 }} – [[American Enterprise Institute]]</ref> Strauss emphasized the spirit of the Greek classics and Thomas G. West (1991) argues that for Strauss the [[American Founding Fathers]] were correct in their understanding of the classics in their principles of justice.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=West|first=Thomas G.|date=1991|title=Leo Strauss and the American Founding|journal=The Review of Politics|volume=53|issue=1|pages=157–172|doi=10.1017/s0034670500050257|s2cid=144097678|issn=0034-6705}}</ref>

For Strauss, political community is defined by convictions about justice and happiness rather than by sovereignty and force. A classical liberal, he repudiated the philosophy of [[John Locke]] as a bridge to 20th-century historicism and nihilism and instead defended [[liberal democracy]] as closer to the spirit of the classics than other modern regimes.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Kenneth L. Deutsch|author2=John Albert Murley|title=Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AUpAMhf8OAC&pg=PA63|year=1999|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=63|access-date=12 June 2016|isbn=978-0-8476-8692-6|archive-date=23 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123161656/https://books.google.com/books?id=0AUpAMhf8OAC&pg=PA63|url-status=live}}</ref> For Strauss, the American awareness of ineradicable evil in human nature and hence the need for morality, was a beneficial outgrowth of the pre-modern Western tradition.<ref>Thomas G. West, "Leo Strauss and the American Founding", ''Review of Politics'', Winter 1991, Vol. 53 Issue 1, pp. 157–72.</ref> O'Neill (2009) notes that Strauss wrote little about American topics, but his students wrote a great deal and that Strauss's influence caused his students to reject [[historicism]] and [[positivism]] as [[Moral relativism|morally relativist]] positions.<ref name=ZZ4>[[Catherine H. Zuckert]], [[Michael P. Zuckert]], ''The Truth about Leo Strauss: Political Philosophy and American Democracy'', University of Chicago Press, 2008, p. 4ff.</ref> They instead promoted a so-called Aristotelian perspective on America that produced a qualified defense of its liberal constitutionalism.<ref>Johnathan O'Neill, "Straussian constitutional history and the Straussian political project", ''Rethinking History'', December 2009, Vol. 13 Issue 4, pp. 459–78.</ref> Strauss's emphasis on [[Moral realism|moral clarity]] led the Straussians to develop an approach to [[international relations]] that Catherine and Michael Zuckert (2008) call '''Straussian [[Wilsonianism]]'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> (or '''Straussian [[Idealism (international relations)|idealism]]'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->), the defense of liberal democracy in the face of its vulnerability.<ref name=ZZ4/><ref>[[Irving Kristol]], ''The Neo-conservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009'', Basic Books, 2011, p. 217.</ref>

Strauss influenced ''The Weekly Standard'' editor [[Bill Kristol]], [[William Bennett]], [[Newt Gingrich]], [[Antonin Scalia]] and [[Clarence Thomas]], as well as [[Paul Wolfowitz]].<ref>Barry F. Seidman and Neil J. Murphy, eds. ''Toward a new political humanism'' (2004), p. 197.</ref><ref>Sheppard, ''Leo Strauss and the politics of exile: the making of a political philosopher'' (2005), pp. 1–2.</ref>