Leo Strauss, Max Weber, and the Scientific Study of Politics (Emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith) - Hardcover

"The best book-length study of Strauss to date, because like Strauss, Behnegar has a naive concern for discovering a scientific (theoretical) perspective on politics, whether ancient or modern." - Rafael Major, Perspectives on Political Science; "In no small part as a result of his acute grasp of Strauss's being a philosopher, Behnegar has the honor of having authored the single best book on Strauss." - Weekly Standard"

Almost three decades after Leo Strauss's death, Nasser Behnegar offers the first sustained exposition of what Strauss was best known for: his radical critique of contemporary social science - particularly of political science. Behnegar argues that Strauss was not averse to the scientific study of politics, but he did reject the idea that it could be built upon political science's cursory distinction between facts and values. Max Weber was, for Strauss, the most profound exponent of values relativism in social science, and Behnegar's explication artfully illuminates Strauss's critique of Weber's belief in the ultimate insolubility of all value conflicts. As Behnegar shows, values - the ethical component lacking in contemporary social science - are essential to Strauss's project of constructing a genuinely scientific study of politics.