Guided by the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Leo Strauss, Laurence Lampert has shown us that reaching back into the thought of the past is indispensable if we are to think properly about the future. The present collection bears eloquent witness to the remarkable breadth, depth, and charm of Lampert’s philosophical labors, which combine Odyssean versatility with Achillean vigor. While each essay engages with different aspects of Lampert’s work, the volume as a whole provides a banquet of food for thought regarding the complex relationship between philosophy, poetry, politics and religion.

David Janssens, Tilburg University

This remarkable volume of essays in honor of Laurence Lampert brings together scholars of the first rank from China, Europe, and North America who offer brilliant analyses of the thought of Plato, Nietzsche, Strauss, Protagoras, and Xenophon. What renders this collection especially stimulating to the reader is the amazingly rich variety of interpretations it presents of these foundational thinkers. By setting forth for the reader's contemplation such powerfully reasoned dialogue and debate concerning what the true teaching of these philosophers is, these essays inspire the reader to undertake a philosophic journey of one's own and to ponder with greater penetration and depth the timeless works of these philosophers for oneself.

Peter J. Ahrensdorf, Davidson College

A New Politics For Philosophy provides a superb set of essays on the enduring relevance of Plato, Nietzsche, and Strauss. But if we take a Nietzschean lens to philosophy, that lens of critique amid crisis that is the now ubiquitous feature of philosophy since Nietzsche’s own life, “Can we understand Plato correctly?” Our scholars answer unambiguously Yes! The first chapter, by Liu Xiaofeng, importantly sets the tone after Dunn and Telli’s introduction. Plato really did write amid crisis, offer a new moral and politico-theological legislation in that crisis, while also critiquing and deconstructing the existing (and failing) paradigm of political and spiritual governance (the pragmatism of the sophists and the cosmogonic theology of the Hesiodic-Homeric deities). Nietzsche and Strauss did the same. We who take seriously the problems of the contemporary world must do the same. That is the demand of the philosopher.

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