Leo Strauss e la teoria hobbesiana delle passioni CARLO ALTINI STORIA del PENSIERO POLITICO 1/2015, 53-70 ISSN 2279-9818 © Società editrice il Mulino Leo Strauss and Hobbes’ Theory of Passions The comparison that Leo Strauss develops with Hobbes’s thought represents the he- art of his questioning on modernity: whereas Machiavelli is the founder of modern political philosophy, Hobbes is the founder of modern ideal of civilization described in terms of cohabitation of humankind grounded on rational criteria. The real core of Hobbes’s interpretation of Strauss is the anthropological and moral dimension. Against Plato and Aristotle, Hobbes marks the start of the modern tradition of moral right considered as different from the classical idea of moral law. Nevertheless, Hob- besian natural right is not only different from the natural law of Classical Greece, but also from the naturalistic principles of mechanism. For Strauss, indeed, the Hobbe- sian view of natural right expresses a subjective and legitimate claim, independent of any obligation or law in a form that in any case cannot be reduced to a set of natural appetites. Therefore, Hobbes’s political philosophy does not rest on the application of the method of new Galilean science to politics, but on his particular moral vision, based on his theory of passions. Keywords: Leo Strauss, Hobbes, natural right, theory of passions, modernity 1. Il confronto filosofico che Leo Strauss sviluppa con il pensiero di Hobbes non riguarda solo problemi storici o filologici, ma costitui- sce il centro dell’interrogazione sulla modernità e sulla filosofia po- litica moderna che guida l’intera riflessione straussiana. Agli occhi di Strauss, infatti, se Machiavelli è il fondatore della filosofia politica moderna 1 , Hobbes è il fondatore dell’ideale moderno di civiltà – tan- 1 Cfr. L. Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli, Glencoe, Free Press, 1958; trad. it. Pensieri su Machiavelli, Milano, Giuffrè, 1970. La definizione straussiana di Ma- Carlo Altini, Fondazione Collegio San Carlo, via San Carlo, 5, 41121 Modena, altinic@fondazio- nesancarlo.it.