On Cropsey's World: Joseph Cropsey and the Tradition of Political Philosophy

Abstract

Throughout his corpus, Joseph Cropsey reflects upon the tradition of political philosophy. Those reflections can be fruitfully approached under four headings. First, Cropsey questions the nature and origins of political philosophy as well as its cosmological or metaphysical foundations. Second, Cropsey questions the customary periodizations of the tradition of political philosophy. He especially questions the usefulness of the ancients-moderns distinction. Third, Cropsey reflects upon the relation between the tradition of political philosophy and concrete political life past and present, hi the process, he tries to show the ways in which comprehensive constellations of ideas work their way into and inform everyday life. Fourth, Cropsey reflects upon the nature of the American regime and its prospects for the future. Throughout, it becomes clear that Cropsey has engaged in an ongoing dialogue with his mentor Leo Strauss. Finally, it also becomes clear, contrary to recent assertions made in response to Plato's World, that Cropsey engages in a series of subtle critiques of Nietzschean and Heideggerian historicism and thereby of contemporary postmodernism as well."Fortunate is the political society in which the healthiest instincts resonate to the deepest insights" (SASA 41) I Throughout a distinguished academic career spanning five decades, Joseph Cropsey has reflected upon the meaning of political philosophy and its complex tradition. From his first book on Adam Smith which appeared in 1957 to his most recent, and controversial, book on Plato which appeared in 1995, Cropsey has left an impressive written record of those reflections. One consistently sees not only significant clarity, penetration and precision but the recurrence of several central themes.First, from beginning to end, Cropsey has reflected upon the nature of political philosophy. He has repeatedly tried to show that, contrary to much post-Heideggerian thought, ontological, cosmological or metaphysical reflection is a necessary part of political philosophy and can be avoided only by a more or less