If the highest things are unknowable, then the highest capacity or virtue of man cannot be theoretical wisdom.
Meaning of the quote
This quote suggests that if there are some things we cannot fully understand, then the most important or valuable abilities of humans cannot come from just thinking or theorizing about the world. Instead, our greatest virtues or strengths must come from a different source, perhaps from practical experience or deeper forms of wisdom beyond just intellectual knowledge.
About Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was an American scholar of political philosophy who had a long career as a professor at the University of Chicago. He studied the works of Plato, Aristotle, and other influential thinkers, and his research focused on reinterpreting their ideas for contemporary political theory.
More quotes from Leo Strauss
If God is One, and if there can be no other God, there can be no idea of God.
History of Political Philosophy scholar (1899-1973)
God is therefore unknowable. This is the fundamental premise of the Bible.
History of Political Philosophy scholar (1899-1973)
God’s reasons for communicating with man must be subsumed under his reason for communicating to him his account of his creation of the world – and man.
History of Political Philosophy scholar (1899-1973)
But the God of the Bible is not only One, but the only possible One.
History of Political Philosophy scholar (1899-1973)
If the highest things are unknowable, then the highest capacity or virtue of man cannot be theoretical wisdom.
History of Political Philosophy scholar (1899-1973)
All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable, which makes you see something you weren’t noticing, which makes you see something that isn’t even visible.
History of Political Philosophy scholar (1899-1973)
I cannot know anything of which there is and can be only one.
History of Political Philosophy scholar (1899-1973)