Postmodern Platos: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Strauss, Derrida / Edition 2

by Catherine H. Zuckert

Overview

Catherine Zuckert examines the work of five key philosophical figures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the lens of their own decidedly postmodern readings of Plato. She argues that Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Strauss, and Derrida, convinced that modern rationalism had exhausted its possibilities, all turned to Plato in order to rediscover the original character of philosophy and to reconceive the Western tradition as a whole. Zuckert's artful juxtaposition of these seemingly disparate bodies of thought furnishes a synoptic view, not merely of these individual thinkers, but of the broad postmodern landscape as well. The result is a brilliantly conceived work that offers an innovative perspective on the relation between the Western philosophical tradition and the evolving postmodern enterprise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226993317
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	06/01/1996
Edition description:	1
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Catherine H. Zuckert is the Nancy R. Dreux Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of Postmodern Platos and a coauthor of The Truth about Leo Strauss, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Postmodern Platos
1: Nietzsche's Rereadings of Plato
2: Heidegger's New Beginning
3: Gadamer's Path: From Heidegger to Plato
4: Strauss's Way Back to Plato
5: "Primitive Platonism": Strauss's Response to Radical Historicism
6: Reconceiving the Western Tradition: Strauss's Studies in Platonic
Political Philosophy
7: Derrida's Deconstruction of Plato
8: Derrida's New [Hi]story
9: The Three Paths from Nietzsche and Heidegger
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

A literary and historical study of Europe's history of racism and genocide in Africa over the past two centuries, written in the form of a travel diary. First published in Sweden by Albert Bonniers Forlag AB, Stockholm, in 1992. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews