Leo Strauss famously asserted that the fundamental, defining debate within Western civilization is that between Jerusalem and Athens, piety and philosophy, the Bible and Plato. And yet, surprisingly, Strauss never published any of his thoughts on Plato’s dialogue on piety, the Euthyphro.

This volume presents, for the first time, Strauss’s 1948 notebook on the dialogue, written in preparation for a class at the New School for Social Research. Featuring close analysis and line-by-line commentary, the notebook opens a window onto a philosophic mind in action, as Strauss asks questions of the classic text, jots down observations and formulations, and analyzes very specific terms and arguments but also steps back, reviews the overall movement of the dialogue, and reconsiders previous conclusions. Beyond the notebook, the volume also brings together all the known materials that lay out Strauss’s thoughts on the Euthyphro. This includes newly transcribed and edited public lectures, illuminating appendixes, critical essays by volume editors Hannes Kerber and Svetozar Y. Minkov and scholar Wayne Ambler, an account of Strauss’s public lecture, and a new English translation of Plato’s Euthyphro by Seth Benardete, a classicist and one of Strauss’s students.

Engaging and inspiring, Leo Strauss on Plato’s “Euthyphro” is a vital resource for scholars and students of political theory, readers interested in the intersection of philosophy and religion, and a must-have for anyone who studies Strauss.

Featuring close analysis and line-by-line commentary, the notebook presents a singularly vivid, exciting, and inspiring window into how a great thinker studies a classic text.

Scholars and the think tank crowd have been eagerly awaiting published research on Strauss's 1948 workbook.

Brings together all the known materials that present Strauss’s thoughts on the Euthyphro, including newly transcribed and edited public lectures, illuminating appendices, critical essays, an account of Strauss’s public lecture, and a new English translation of Plato’s Euthyphro by classicist and one of Strauss’s students Seth Bernadete.

Strauss’s political philosophy is highly relevant to the western world and is the source for much of neo-conservative and neo-liberal political thought.