Leo Strauss’s ‘On Tyranny’ Published in Persian

Date: 21 May 2025 - 22:08

News ID: ۱۳۹۸۲۸

TEHRAN -- The politically significant book ‘On Tyranny’ (1963) by American scholar of political philosophy Leo Strauss has been published in Persian and is available at Iranian bookstores.
The book has been translated into Persian by Shervin Moqimi and Yashar Jairani. Qoqnoos Publishing has released ‘On Tyranny’ in 373 pages.
This work is Leo Strauss’s classic reading of Xenophon’s dialogue, Hiero or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny.
This edition includes a translation of the dialogue, a critique of the commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, Strauss’s restatement of his position in light of Kojève’s comments, and finally, the complete Strauss-Kojève correspondence.
According to Alexandre Kojève, through Strauss’s interpretation Xenophon appears as no longer the somewhat dull and flat author we know, but as a brilliant and subtle writer, an original and profound thinker.
“What is more, in interpreting this forgotten dialogue, Strauss lays bare great moral and political problems that are still ours,” he writes.
Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Chicago. His many contributions to political philosophy include ‘The Political Philosophy of Hobbes’ and ‘Liberalism Ancient and Modern’, both published by the University of Chicago Press.