Nasser Behnegar – författare

Almost three decades after Leo Strauss's death, Nasser Behnegar offers the first sustained exposition of what Strauss was best known for: his radical critique of contemporary social science - particularly of political science. Behnegar argues that Strauss was not averse to the scientific study of politics, but he did reject the idea that it could be built upon political science's cursory distinction between facts and values. Max Weber was, for Strauss, the most profound exponent of values relativism in social science, and Behnegar's explication artfully illuminates Strauss's critique of Weber's belief in the ultimate insolubility of all value conflicts. As Behnegar shows, values - the ethical component lacking in contemporary social science - are essential to Strauss's project of constructing a genuinely scientific study of politics.

Almost three decades after Leo Strauss's death, Nasser Behnegar offers the first sustained exposition of what Strauss was best known for: his radical critique of contemporary social science - particularly of political science. Behnegar argues that Strauss was not averse to the scientific study of politics, but he did reject the idea that it could be built upon political science's cursory distinction between facts and values. Max Weber was, for Strauss, the most profound exponent of values relativism in social science, and Behnegar's explication artfully illuminates Strauss's critique of Weber's belief in the ultimate insolubility of all value conflicts. As Behnegar shows, values - the ethical component lacking in contemporary social science - are essential to Strauss's project of constructing a genuinely scientific study of politics.

Political Rhetoric in Theory and Practice is an introduction to the art of rhetoric or persuasive speaking. A collection of primary sources, it combines classic statements of the theory of political rhetoric (Aristotle, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Cicero) with a rich array of political speeches, from Socrates to Martin Luther King Jr., Pericles to Richard Nixon, Sojourner Truth to Phyllis Schlafly. These speeches exemplify not only the three principal kinds of rhetoric - judicial, deliberative, and epideictic - but also the principal rhetorical proofs. Grouped thematically, the speeches boast a diversity of speakers, subject matters, and themes. At a time when the practice of democracy and democratic deliberation are much in question, this book seeks to encourage the serious study of rhetoric by making available important examples of it, in both its noblest and its most scurrilous forms.