In this work I aim to explain the theory of tyranny outlined by Alexandre Kojève in the essay entitled Tyrannie et Sagesse, that was originally composed as a review of Leo Strauss’ On Ty-ranny.
The paper tries to demonstrate that this specific Kojèvian theory is not occasional, but it repre-sents an important articulation of the “Hegelian” System of wisdom created by the Russian phi-losopher. An articulation in which it shows a kind of “meeting place” of central parts of the Sy-stem, in particular the philosophical anthropology based on desire (Begierde) and recognition (Anerkennung), the theory of Authority and the phenomenology of law.
The common thread of my interpretation is the relationship thematised by Kojève between political power and philosophy. This perspective could open plural dimensions of tyranny in the kojèvian thought. Dimensions which are interconnected in the direction of a post-historical and post-political State, in which the concepts of “stranger” and “alien” are dissolved into an universal and all-embracing reality.
