Response to Frankfurt’s “Word of Principle”

"Antwort auf das 'Prinzipielle Wort' der Frankfurter," Judische Rundschau, Vol. 28, No. 9 (30 Jan. 1923).  Reprinted in Gesammelte Schriften Band 2.  Reprinted in Leo Strauss: The Early Writings.

Excerpt:

One should not let oneself be deceived by the political demands of Walter Moses.  What he calls “political” is political in the ancient sense of the word, rather than in the modern sense that is relevant for us.  What is hidden behind this absolute negation of the sphere of the “private” is not a modern Leviathan, but rather the pagan-fascist counterpart of that, which, in the case of the Frankfurt faction, bears a mystical-humanitarian stamp.  (To be sure, both of these attitudes are modern, even though they are antimodern, which is precisely what renders them inner-modern.)

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