 Leaving aside legitimate debate about the intellectual history of western civilization that Strauss sketches, problems remain with many of his philosophical contentions. Strauss certainly cannot be said to have offered definitive arguments against historicism, definitive arguments for or against revelation, or definitive arguments for a return to “nature.” Rather, in all these cases, one might argue, Strauss has merely begged the question. Strauss historicizes philosophy in order to make an argument for timeless truth. His rational defenses of both the possibility of revelation and philosophical rationalism are made on the basis of a critique of reason’s self-sufficiency. Finally, Strauss’s claims about a return to “nature” rest not upon arguments for “nature” but rather upon arguments about the consequences of not having a conception of “nature.”