Postmodern Platos: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Strauss, Derrida

by Catherine H. Zuckert

Catherine Zuckert examines the work of five key philosophical figures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the lens of their own decidedly postmodern readings of Plato. She argues that Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Strauss, and Derrida, convinced that modern rationalism had exhausted its possibilities, all turned to Plato in order to rediscover the original character of philosophy and to reconceive the Western tradition as a whole. Zuckert's artful juxtaposition of these seemingly disparate bodies of thought furnishes a synoptic view, not merely of these individual thinkers, but of the broad postmodern landscape as well. The result is a brilliantly conceived work that offers an innovative perspective on the relation between the Western philosophical tradition and the evolving postmodern enterprise.

Genres: Philosophy

359 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1996

About the author

Catherine H. Zuckert is the Nancy R. Dreux Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. She was Editor-in-Chief of The Review of Politics from 2004-2018, and Visiting Professor, ASU’s School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership in 2019.

Zuckert’s book, Natural Right and the American Imagination: Political Philosophy in Novel Form, won the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Award for the best book written in philosophy and religion by the American Association of Publishers in 1990. Understanding the Political Spirit: From Socrates to Nietzsche, edited by Zuckert, received a Choice award as one of the best books published in political theory in 1989. Her book on Plato’s Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues (University of Chicago Press, 2009) won the R.R. Hawkins award from the Association of American Publishers for the best scholarly book published that year. She co-authored The Truth about Leo Strauss (2006) and Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy (2014) with Michael P. Zuckert (both published by the University of Chicago Press), and edited Political Philosophy in the 20th Century: Authors and Arguments (Cambridge University Press, 2011) as well as Leo Strauss on Political Philosophy (University of Chicago Press, 2018). Her most recent monograph, Machiavelli’s Politics (University of Chicago Press, 2017), was selected by the Washington Examiner as a book of the decade.

Zuckert has received several grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the Bradley and Earhart Foundations.

She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, has been listed in several editions of Who’s Who in America, and was selected as a member of the Templeton Honor Role in 1998.