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This is going to be an online meetup using Zoom. If you've never used Zoom before, don't worry — it's easy to use and free to join.

Click on the link above at the scheduled date/time to log in...

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This meetup is titled "PHIL 401" like an upper-level college course because I'm tentatively imagining it as the third in a series of discussions where we delve into some lesser known political thinkers that wouldn't typically be covered in an introduction 101-level course on political philosophy. Specifically, we'll look at older thinkers (mostly dead now) whose ideas have recently been revived and try to figure out why some people feel they're relevant to today's concerns. (The previous entries in the PHIL 401 series include a meetup on Nietzsche back in Oct. 2024, one on James Burnham & Christopher Lasch in June, and one on Oswald Spengler & Julius Evola in July.)

This meetup will focus on Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt, two 20th-century German thinkers whose ideas have become influential among both American & Chinese political thinkers. This may seem like an odd pairing, considering that Leo Strauss was a German-Jewish intellectual who left Germany in 1932 shortly before Hitler came to power and became a professor at the University of Chicago, whereas Carl Schmitt stayed in Germany, joined the Nazi Party and became the Third Reich's chief jurist. Strauss warned against the elements of nihilism he saw in liberalism but vehemently opposed both fascism and communism, while Schmitt provided the intellectual justifications for fascist authoritarianism.

But the two thinkers didn't start off so far apart, considering they were both conservative thinkers critical of modernity and Enlightenment liberalism during the Weimar era. They knew each other professionally, and Schmitt was one of the first important German academics to review Strauss's early work positively, and Schmitt's positive reference for Strauss's work on Hobbes was instrumental in winning Strauss the scholarship funding that allowed him to leave Germany. Likewise, Schmitt respected Strauss's critique of Schmitt's book The Concept of the Political (1932) enough to make significant emendations in its 2nd edition. Writing to Schmitt in 1932, Strauss summarised Schmitt's political philosophy that "because man is by nature evil, he, therefore, needs dominion. But dominion can be established, that is, men can be unified only in a unity against—against other men. Every association of men is necessarily a separation from other men... the political thus understood is not the constitutive principle of the state, of order, but a condition of the state." Strauss ultimately opposed Schmitt's position, but he found Schmitt's return to Hobbes helpfully clarified the problems of 20th-century politics amid the crisis of modernity.

In the 1st section, we'll look at Leo Strauss's influence on American conservatism, in particular the "neoconservative" (neocon) movement that arose among former Trotskyites & New Deal liberals who felt "mugged by reality" amid the social turmoil of the 1960s and saw the need for US assertiveness in the Cold War. The video I've linked in this section has the neocon pundit Jonah Goldberg interviewing the scholar Steven Smith, a Straussian expert and professor of political science and philosophy at Yale University. They discuss Strauss's life and how he became controversial in academia due to his critique of liberalism as providing a slippery slope to relativism & nihilism, as well as his promotion of esoteric reading of classical philosophical texts for subversive theological & political messages and his reading of Plato's Republic which are often interpreted as endorsing the use of "noble lies" by elites. They argue that Strauss favored a productive tension between reason & faith, symbolized by the cultural centers of Athens and Jerusalem which both contributed to Western civilization. Goldberg and Smith also discuss the split between two of Strauss's major followers - Harry Jaffa & Allan Bloom - which led to the current split between the "East Coast Straussians", i.e. the Never-Trump neocons based primarily in DC think tanks & media outlets like The Bulwark and The Dispatch, and the pro-Trump "West Coast Straussians" based primarily in Southern California, particularly the Claremont Institute and their American Mind blog. The neocons are more comfortable working with moderate liberals, whereas the "Claremonsters" think the dominance of liberal-progressivism in elite spaces has created a crisis that justifies extreme measures - and Goldberg sees this as being partly rooted in a misreading of Strauss. In this regard, we'll also touch upon Francis Fukuyama's recent republication of Strauss's 1941 lecture on "German Nihilism" and how he thinks it relates to the pathologies of the "dissident right" of today.

In the 2nd section, we'll look at Carl Schmitt's recent influence on the "dissident right" thinkers who emerged during Trump's first term and are now more prominent in his second term. The first video I linked in this section is the dissident right thinker Auron McIntyre who discusses the usefulness of Schmitt's concept of the "Friend-Enemy Distinction" for understanding Trump-era politics. Schmitt posited that some political conflicts are existential & non-negotiable, and McIntyre argues Trump understands this instinctively and thus ignoring ideological coherence and builds coalitions purely around shared enemies. The second video is the anti-woke pundit James Lindsay who discusses the dangers of Schmitt's concepts of the "State of Exception" (i.e. a crisis that justifies suspending constitutional limits) and the "Unbound Executive" (i.e. the executive must be capable of rising above the law to ensure state survival in a crisis). If we have time, we may address Schmitt's concept of "Great Spaces" (i.e. the regional spheres on influence of world powers) and how some pundits are relating it to Trump's foreign policy which alternates between aggression to weaker powers like Iran & Venezuela and negotiation with major powers like Russia & China.

In the 3rd section, we'll look at how both Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt have become surprisingly influential in Chinese political thought in the 21st century as the CCP moves away from orthodox Marxism & Maoism and tries to chart a path for China's rise to power that involves a mix of nationalism and authoritarianism rather than Western liberalism. The first video I linked in this section comes from Michael Millerman, a controversial philosophy professor at the University of Toronto who promotes a variety of right-wing thinkers in his classes and on his Youtube channel. Millerman gives his take on Erik Hendriks-Kim's article in First Things entitled "Why China Loves Conservatives" which mentions both Leo Strauss and Samuel Huntingdon. Millerman & Hendriks-Kim empathize with how Chinese nationalists have adopted Strauss's critique of liberalism's fragmentation of culture and society, as well as Huntingdon's "Clash of Civilizations" thesis for how foreign policy works in the post-Cold War era. The second video is from a discussion hosted by the libertarian Cato Institute, where Mustafa Akyol talks to the scholars Timothy Cheek & Lynette Ong about "China's New Authoritarian Ideology", particularly the growing influence of Carl Schmitt which they consider alarming. Cheek & Ong don't think Schmitt's philosophy is a driver of CCP so much as a post-hoc justification that's useful not that China is no longer revolutionary and needs a justification for an "unbound executive" and a "friend-enemy distinction" that can provide political unity against internal & external threats.

Please note this discussion will focus on aspects of Strauss & Schmitt's philosophies that have been recently revived or reinterpreted, and why that's happened over the last decade or so, rather than trying for a more comprehensive approach you'd see in a typical college philosophy class. The videos & articles I've linked under each section are intended to give you an idea of how/why some intellectually-inclined conservatives today are attracted to Schmitt or Strauss, but also how today's Chinese intellectuals & CCP party members have been influenced by these two thinkers.

RELEVANT MATERIALS FROM PAST MEETUPS:

In June 2022, we had a meetup entitled "Is 'Constitutional Conservatism' Dying?" In the 3rd section, we looked at the dispute between the East Coast Straussians who are mostly neoconservatives and oppose Trump and the West Coast Straussians (a.k.a. the "Claremonsters" who are based around the Claremont Institute) who support Trump. We discussed whether this split was rooted in the philosophical differences between Leo Strauss's chief disciples (Harry Jaffa & Allan Bloom), or was merely related to the East Coast Straussians living & working closer to the centers of power in NYC & DC where foreign policy issues loom large, while the West Coast Straussians were living in a state (California) where Republicans quickly lost power in the 1990s amid an influx of legal & illegal immigrants from Latin America.

Back in May, we had a meetup entitled "WWII Revisionism & The Right: Why Are Neocons & Populists Debating Churchill and the Holocaust?" In the Intro section, I explained that the recent debates over Tucker Carlson & Joe Rogan hosting podcaster Darryl Cooper to discuss his contrarian views on WWII are part of a "new brand of right-wing historical revisionism, which often includes a rejection of the Founding Fathers & formerly admired Republican presidents like Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower & Ronald Reagan; a sympathetic view of far-right governments of the past like the Confederacy, Nazi Germany, Francoist Spain & Pinochet's Chile; and admiration for a variety of reactionary intellectuals of the past (e.g. Joseph de Maitre, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, Julius Evola, Martin Heidegger, Carl Schmitt)."

Back in October, we had a meetup entitled "Is America Sliding Into Authoritarianism?" and in the 4th section we discussed the view of some right-wing pundits that what their counterparts on the left perceive as an authoritarian takeover is in fact a "conservative counter-revolution" which draws upon "unitary executive theory" and seeks to reverse the left's "long march through the institutions". This relates to Carl Schmitt's thinking about the "state of exception" and the "unbound executive" we'll discuss in this meetup.

We haven't discussed Chinese political philosophy in past meetups, but we have discussed the ways in which the rise of China had confounded Francis Fukuyama's "end of history" thesis published amid the fall of the Soviet Union that predicted liberal-democracy had permanently won the contest of ideas. China's rise relates to questions of whether authoritarian governments may be better at enabling economic growth than democracy, and whether the citizens of an efficient authoritarian government can be truly happy even if they're not "free". Check out the 2nd section of our 2018 meetup entitled "Are We In a Global Democratic Recession?", the 2nd section of our Jan. 2024 meetup entitled "The Economics & Politics of Happiness", and the 2nd section of our meetup from Mar. 2025 entitled "What Is/Was The Liberal International Order?"

DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:

The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of some of the major debates over some of Leo Strauss & Carl Schmitt's major works and the ideas contained therein, as well as their reception & reintrepretation by both Western & Chinese thinkers. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about 90 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I've listed some questions under each section to stimulate discussion. We'll do our best to address most of them, as well as whatever other questions our members raise. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.

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I. LEO STRAUSS'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & ITS INFLUENCE ON THE NEOCONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT IN AMERICA:

  • Is liberalism's tolerance self-sustaining because it allows us to build more inclusive institutions or self-defeating because it leads to relativism & nihilism - or requires “illiberal” moral foundations like traditionalism & nationalism?
  • Can modern democracies cultivate meaning, loyalty, and sacrifice without becoming exclusionary or oppressive?
  • Is Strauss's reading of Plato's "City of Pigs" and Nietzsche's “Last Man” fair to modernity, i.e. does liberalism's egalitarianism & focus on material goods flatten nobility or is that romanticizing conflict and hierarchy?
  • What should count as “nihilism” today (i.e. Fukuyama points to the far right's rejection of civic norms & Jan. 6th; Ellmers points to left-wing riots in 2020 & urban crime)?
  • Was Harry Jaffa's focus on the need for an objective "common good" and various threats to the principles of America's Founding the logical extension of Strauss or a contingent detour that led to the Claremont Institute becoming illiberal?
  • When are warnings of a “civilizational crisis” a necessary alarm bell and when are they a corrosive, self-fulfilling prophecy?
  • Can you be critical of the Enlightenment's legacy but still favor liberal democracy, as Strauss claimed to be? If so, what would that mean today?

1.) Jonah Goldberg w/ Steven Smith, "Who Was Leo Strauss?" (video - 1:21:21, listen to 34:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWWKgj-K9xA

II. CARL SCHMITT'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & ITS INFLUENCE ON THE DISSIDENT RIGHT MOVEMENT IN AMERICA:

  • Is Schmitt mainly a warning or a teacher - i.e. can his insights be used without sliding toward his conclusions?
  • Are there truly “existential” political disagreements in the U.S. today—or are we rhetorically inflating conflicts?
  • Is an “unbound executive” ever compatible with American constitutionalism - and if so, under what limits?
  • Did COVID governance validate Schmitt’s "state of exception"—or expose its dangers? Are we seeing something similar with Trump's use of a "crime crisis" and "migrant crisis" to justify sending the National Guards & ICE to blue cities?
  • Do post-liberal conservatives risk becoming mirror images of the “woke left” they oppose, as James Lindsay argues?
  • Is Trump better understood as a Schmittian realist or as an opportunist exploiting polarization?
  • Is Schmitt’s concept of “great spaces” compatible with a relatively peaceful multipolar world or more akin to Huntingdon's inevitable "clash of civilizations"?
  • What is the strongest non-authoritarian answer to Schmitt's Hobbesian view of politics? Is it stronger liberalism, restrained realism, renewed civic trust, or something else entirely?

2a) Aaron McIntyre, "The Friend-Enemy Distinction" (video - 9:47 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d3aRYlSHDU

2b) James Lindsay, "The State of Exception and the Unbound Executive" (video - 15:42 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T61VV35bGI

III. LEO STRAUSS & CARL SCHMITT'S INFLUENCE ON CONTEMPORARY CHINESE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY:

  • Are China nationalists genuinely “influenced” by Strauss and Schmitt or merely using them to justify preexisting policy goals?
  • Does Strauss’s critique of liberal universalism unintentionally enable authoritarian regimes?
  • How persuasive is the CCP’s argument that liberal democracy leads to disorder and decay, especially in light of heightened political polarization in the US & Europe?
  • Is China’s civilizational argument fundamentally defensive (“this works for us") or a bid for ideological leadership (“this should work for everyone”)?
  • Does the friend–enemy logic explain China’s treatment of Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Taiwan better than Marxism does? If so, what does it imply about China's future trajectory?
  • Is Confucianism being revived as a genuine moral framework or as a legitimating myth (a la Strauss)?

3a) Michael Millerman, "Why China Loves Conservatives" (video - 31:00 min, listen to 12:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbC-k6sIuEE

3b) Mustafa Akyol w/ Timothy Cheek & Lynette Ong, "China's New Authoritarian Ideology" (video - 1:01:18, listen to 18:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN2YdaTWS0s&t=1m37s

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AI summary

By Meetup

Online biweekly discussion for philosophy readers on Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt; learn how their ideas are revived and influence Western and Chinese thought.

Related topics

Intellectual Discussions
Political Philosophy
Chinese Philosophy
Conservative Values
Political Polarization

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