Thoughts on pic related and esotericism in general? About halfway

fuck strauss

>>8857882
why? so much hate on Strauss for no reason

>>8857851
Strauss is good, and I wanna read this book. Good taste, senpai.

>>8857851
Good choice. Solid historic account without having to get too involved in the messier details of specific interpretations.

I'm don't think I'd call myself a Straussian, but I have a lot of respect for the man and some of his better students (Benardete, Kennington, Rosen, Gourevitch).

Anything standing out in particular?

>>8857851
Is that book /straussian/? I am sympathetic to Strauss's readings so I'm interested.

>>8860121
Written by one of Mansfield's students. Focuses more on an argument for the mere existence of exoteric writing in history as a corrective to Strauss's critics who dismiss the possibility outright, not being familiar with the great amount of documentary evidence arguing for it, if not for any of the more specific Strauss-affiliated interpretations associated with exoteric writing.

>>8857851
An online appendix to that work, collecting the historical accounts of exoteric writing.

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/sites/melzer/melzer_appendix.pdf

>>8860083
Great bits where he speaks about how esotericism is the norm in most all cultures but ours, and also exposes our own subtle form of it (e.g. the phenomenon of gaydar, where we know of gays using secret signals to reveal their orientation without alerting others).

Also interesting discussion on the nature of theory vs praxis (practical living), whether the two are fundamentally compatible or not, and why perceiving that they're not makes esotericism necessary.

>>8861340
this is beautiful thank you