Leo Strauss *
Philosopher Leo Strauss (1899-1973) taught at the University of Chicago and inspired a generation of prominent conservative intellectuals, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and former Secretary of Education William Bennett.
He criticized modern liberalism for its tendency toward relativism and eventually nihilism, and as an antidote he encouraged the study of the classic philosophers like Aristotle and Plato. Now you can get a taste of Strauss’s thought, and hear what he was like in the classroom, by downloading and listening to vintage recordings of his classes from the 1950s and 1960s available at the website of the Leo Strauss Center. According to the website, the Center plans to make transcripts of the recordings available beginning sometime this year.
For other vintage recordings of 20th century teachers and thinkers, see Gems from the Internet Archive, Four history courses from George Mosse, Why study philosophy? and Quantum physics made relatively simple.
