Natural Right and History

In this book, Leo Strauss argues that there is a firm foundation in reality for the distinction between right and wrong in ethics and politics.

He contrasts classical natural right, as expounded by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas, with modern natural right, which began with Thomas Hobbes and was further developed by thinkers like Locke, Rousseau, and Burke.

Strauss critiques modern natural right for leading to historicist relativism and argues that classical natural right is more in line with human nature as political animals.

The book is a comprehensive analysis of the intellectual crisis of modernity and the role of philosophy in understanding natural right.