A Critical Study On Leo Strauss’ S Nihilism Theory

As the deep-seated problem of the times,nihilism,its essence,causes and ways of overcoming have been attached great importance to the theoretical circles at home and abroad.However,Strauss’ s theory of nihilism’s criticism based on its opposition to "historicism" and other misunderstandings,but aimed at Marxism and communism,and thus constitute the object of this critical study.Through the analysis of the originality of modern nihilism and the disagreement of the concept of nihilism,The article suggests: Strauss is on the basis of Jacobi and Nietzsche,it begins with the research of nihilism from the view of axiology,which is different from Heidegger’s existence perspective.His critique of nihilism is essentially a conceptual view of theological background and the idealist view of the reincarnation,which can not challenge Marxism.On the contrary,Marxism is precisely in the historical reality of the "materialization" movement and its sublation of the dialectical materialism insight,master the key to overcome the modern nihilism.According to this basic idea,the discussion of this paper is divided into three parts.Part one,firstly it inspects on the term "nihilism" from the perspective of etymology and semantics.Combining with the previous research,and dividing the main types of nihilism.At last,from the perspective of intellectual history,it sort out the development of European nihilism.And we put Will Strauss in the position of the history of the whole European nihilism to be identified,which mainly refer that nihilism is defined as the value of nothingness,and that is the meaning of nihilism in the sense of value.Part two,it focuses on Strauss’ s thinking about nihilism: firstly,a brief description of the idea of Strauss about the definition of nihilism and its connotation;secondly,we analyze deeply on the theoretical text of Strauss’ s German Nihilism,which shows the value and predicament of its argument;at last,simply descript the history of Marx’s as well as the communist judgment and criticism of nihilism in Strauss’ s vision.Part three,it responds Strauss’ s criticism from the perspective of historical materialism to.First of all,it tells the common problem of between Strauss and othernihilist critics,which is from the religious theological standpoint to the judgment and criticism of modern society nihilism,and that is what Marx does not agree with.Secondly,it points out that Strauss tries to overcome the nihilistic path by returning to classicalism,which is not enough or even impossible to overcome the concept through "the concept to overcome the concept".As Marx believes,"social existence determines social consciousness",instead of the opposite,which must get through by the reform of nihilism to produce the reality,and deal with the ideological dilemma of nihilism.Furthermore,it explains the positive value of the "materialization" from Marx’s theory of social three-stage theory,and points out that Strauss used to treat the nihilism of modern society prescription is a problem,because he used to replace people Dependent program,which is back to the first stage of Marx’s criticism-the original form of human-to-human attachment.At last,it discusses the historical materialism as the further perfection and development of historicism,and its development principle is the key to overcome the European nihilism.