L’epicureismo nell’opera di Leo Strauss

Abstract

This essay aims to arrange and expose chronologically the references to Epicurus, Lucretius and the influence of their ideas contained in the works of Leo Strauss. Although Strauss wrote a long essay on Lucretius and more or less extensive references to Epicurus and Lucretius are present in his other works, this presence has not received much attention or aroused much interest. And yet, what was already written in his first monograph: Die Religionskritik Spinozas als Grundlage seiner Bibelwissenschaft, 1930, should have put on the alert both those interested in understanding what the sources of the adversary modernity are for Strauss and those interested in understanding his position towards Epicureanism. It should also be added that although in recent decades there has been a flowering of monographs and collections of essays on Epicurus, Lucretius and their contribution to the birth of modernity, the presence of Strauss has been at least marginal.