Abstract

Leo Strauss, based on his analysis about the crisis of modern philosophy in 20. Century, states that we fell into chaos of values and nihilism. According to Strauss, return to pre-modern philosophers is necessary due to solving modern crisis which has lost the idea of truth. But, he points out that ancient and Islamic philosophers do not share truth with everybody and hide it because of willing to protect themselves from the tragedy of Socrates and protect both philosophy and society. Therefore, Strauss thinks they developed special writing technique which is called esoteric writing in order to hide their true teachings from majority and through this they can only share their teachings with the ones who are capable of doing philosophy. In this article, it is tried to explain how Strauss reach his esoteric interpretation and then how he connects it with Islamic philosophers.