Straussians are back in the news–and all over blogs–because of the controversy surrounding the President’s Council on Bioethics. The Council’s chair, Leon Kass, was influenced by the late Leo Strauss. Two of its members have just been replaced–possibly for dubious ideological reasons. I’m not going to comment on that controversy, since I don’t know the facts. I do enjoy the renewed attention to Straussianism, because it allows me to follow the postings of various young folks who are under Strauss’s influence. See, for example, the collection of links after Jacob Levy’s post, or this guide to “How to Spot a Straussian..”

Strauss is generally seen as a cultural conservative. However, his form of writing is indirect. He doesn’t say what his personal views are; instead, he “reads” classic authors of the past. He explains that great philosophers are always in peril because of the unpopularity of their views, so they write “esoterically”–with coded or hidden messages. Strauss rarely (if ever) says what the messages of these past authors are. If, however, you apply Strauss’ interpretative methods to his own writing, you find some evidence that he is actually endorsing a profound moral skepticism, akin to Nietzsche’s philosophical position. It so happens that Nietzsche used the same methods of encoding secret messages in his own writing, and explicitly described himself as an esoteric author. Thus I have argued that Strauss was the opposite of a cultural conservative. He was a God-is-dead Nietzschean.

Then the sociological question becomes: Which Straussians (proteges of Leo Strauss) are in on this game? My guess is, not many. One can actually do very interesting work as a Straussian minus the esoteric nihilism. Strauss drew our attention to the perilous position of critical thinkers in most, if not all, societies, and thus invited us to read the classics for hidden messages. This can be a productive approach. He also took some hard and effective shots at modern liberalism. I doubt that he favored straightforward conservatism as the alternative. But I do think he identified some of the deepest problems with liberalism, especially its tendency to support moral relativism as a moral absolute (a position that comes very close to self-refutation). Since Strauss, there has been a sophisticated and wide-ranging discussion of that issue, so he hardly had the last word. But he introduced an important topic.

Finally, Straussians make useful colleagues because they are relentlessly opposed to political correctness and are willing to be “elitists.” When we carelessly repeat nostrums like “the people’s right to know,” it’s great to have a Straussian around to say, “That’s complete nonsense.” They are excellent prods to actual thinking–which may have been Leo Strauss’ only goal in the first place.