Description: This book critically examines Leo Strauss's claim that the philosophers of antiquity, especially Plato, wrote esoterically, hiding the highest truths "exclusively between the lines." Reading Strauss's discourse through Lacanian psychoanalysis, his theory of esoteric writing ca...
Review Quotes: "Perversion and the Art of Persecution: Esotericism and Fear in the Political Philosophy of Leo Strauss makes an important contribution to the larger field of political philosophy and speaks to Strauss's perversion regarding writing due to his fear. Ultimately, its merits lie in the questions that it raises and the trenchant and poetic insight about the role of the political philosopher in political life with which he leaves the careful reader. Indeed, the whole book generates a dialogue and critical examination about our role as political philosophers and political beings. Walsh's book unfolds in front of us as the 'barb of the Platonic gadfly endur[ing] to sting again and again.'" --Anna M. Agathangelou, York University, Toronto