María Alejandra Vanney * LA UTOPÍA DEL “RETORNO” DE LEO STRAUSS FRENTE A LAS UTOPÍAS MODERNAS Abstract Strauss claims that the general crisis in Western world is closely related to the crisis which political philosophy as such is undergoing. Apart from that, the latter is the result of the revolutionary changes introduced by the creators of modern political philosophy, breaking with tradition in order to construe a new political science. The article examines the Straussian vision of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke and, inally, Nietzsche. Based on this, Strauss proposes that a “re- turn” is needed as an adequate response to failure – or triumph? – of the mod- ern utopia. But as it is just impossible to simply reconstruct the past, the article poses the question about at which moment of history should the “return” begin and, particularly which elements of the complex thinking heritage should be claimed. In this respect, Strauss suggests that the reform of political philosophy is necessarily equivalent to an amendment of totality. In this way, it is stated here that the great problem about the return lies mainly in that it is not clear where the return aims at. 1. INTRODUCCIÓN En el ensayo ¿ Qué es ilosofía política? Leo Strauss deine y describe las “tres olas de la modernidad” que se reieren a las crisis sucesivas occidentales, cada vez más profundas, que desembocan en la actual; época que, airma Strauss, in- auguró Nietzsche 1 . Su principal característica consiste en que la modernidad, al dejar de creer en sus valores principales, acaba negándose a sí misma, su propio sentido y sus ideales. Por ello, constata Strauss que es en el pensamiento de Nietzsche donde quizás se releja de manera más clara la toma de conciencia de la situación existente. Su análisis profundo hace posible diagnosticar adecuadamente las razones que ex- * mvanney@austral.edu.ar 1. L. Strauss, ¿Qué es ilosofía política?, Guadarrama, Madrid 1970, p. 72. Cfr. L. Strauss, “The Three Waves of Modernity”, en H. Gildin (ed.), Ten Essays by Leo Strauss, Wayne State University Press, De- troit 1989 2 , pp. 81-99; R. B. Pippin, “The Modern World of Leo Strauss”, Political Theory 20 (1992), 3, pp. 448-472 y “Being, Time and Politics: The Strauss-Kojève Debate”, History and Theory 22 (1993), 2, pp. 209-261.