Leo Strauss’un İslam Felsefesi Yaklaşımı ve Gazali Literatürü Arasındaki Benzerlikler

Leo Strauss is one of the thinkers who have contributed to the debate about the nature of philosophy, particularly the Islamic-Jewish philosophy, and the proper method of studying its history. According to Strauss, who is known mostly with his works regarding political philosophy, there is a conflict between philosophy and society, and the philosophers employ a special technique of writing in their works both to escape the harms which may arise out of this conflict and to continue their philosophical activities. Strauss finds the earliest traces of this technique in Plato and thinks that the philosophers who shaped the Islamic-Jewish philosophy also philosophized by employing this technique. Most of the scholars of Islamic philosophy are either skeptical about the existence of this technique or deny its existence completely. Despite the doubts about its existence, its possible to claim that the assumptions on which this technique rises still find space in the study of Islamic philosophy. In fact, it is seen that the recent studies about al-Ghazālī take off from similar assumptions. In this study, a short presentation of Strauss' approach will be provided and the similarities between it and the recent studies of al-Ghazālī will tried to be pointed out.