Download or read book The Politics and Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott written by Stuart Isaacs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Oakeshott was a leading Political theorist described by The Telegraph in 1990 as "the greatest political philosopher in the Anglo-Saxon tradition since Mill – or even Burke". There has been sustained interest in his work, and a developing body of literature, over recent years. This book offers a clearly written and accessible critical analysis: it presents complex theories and concepts in a way that will introduce new readers to Oakeshott’s work, and at the same time offers a fresh approach for those already familiar with his philosophy. The Politics and Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott reveals how his work relates to contemporary political philosophy (for example, Arendt, Rorty, Rawls); and moreover, how it links to broader debates within philosophy and the social sciences and, building upon the work of Devigne, through to postmodernism. This book brings together the disparate influences that have, at various times, been associated with Oakeshott’s work, and draws from a number of essays which have been published posthumously. Referring to these, and other more well-known texts, the author makes sense of the many dimensions of Oakeshott’s work by placing a moral concern as central to his system of thought. All in all this book considers the recently published ‘lesser-known’ essays as well as the latest secondary appraisals of Oakeshott’s work, which sets his thought in the contemporary political environment of the twenty-first century. This much-needed text with be of great interest to students and researchers in political science and philosophy.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott written by Terry Nardin and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive study of Michael Oakeshott as a philosopher rather than a political theorist, which is how most commentators have regarded him. Indeed, the careful reading of his published and unpublished writings that Terry Nardin provides here shows that Oakeshott's concerns have been primarily philosophical, not political. These writings go far beyond politics to offer a critical philosophy of human activity and of the disciplines that interpret and explain it. Oakeshott argues that inquiry can be independent of practical concerns, even when its subject is the thought and action of human beings. Although the book considers Oakeshott's views on morality, law, and government, it is primarily concerned with his ideas about the character of knowledge, especially knowledge of intelligent human conduct, and focuses attention on the concepts of modality, contingency, and civility that are central to Oakeshott's philosophy as a whole. Nardin seeks to show how Oakeshott's critique of scientism and other forms of foundationalism supports a powerful version of the argument that history is the proper mode for understanding human choice and action. The book thus provides the fullest discussion available of Oakeshott's antifoundationalist view of epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of history and the human sciences. It examines his arguments concerning the criteria of truth, the forms of knowledge, the relationship between theory and practice, the place of interpretation in the social sciences, the nature and importance of historical explanation, and the definition of philosophy itself. And it is the first study to look at Oakeshott's relationship to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and other movements in twentieth-century Continental philosophy.
Download or read book Michael Oakeshott and the Conversation of Modern Political Thought written by Luke Philip Plotica and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2015-02-23 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the seminal voices of twentieth-century political thought, Michael Oakeshott's work has often fallen prey to the ideological labels applied to it by his interpreters and commentators. In this book, Luke Philip Plotica argues that we stand to learn more by embracing Oakeshott's own understanding of his work as contributions to an ever-evolving conversation of humanity. Building from Oakeshott's concept of conversation as an engagement among a plurality of voices "without symposiarch or arbiter" to dictate its course, Plotica explores several fundamental and recurring themes of Oakeshott's philosophical and political writings: individual agency, tradition, the state, and democracy. When viewed as interventions into an ongoing conversation of modern political thought, Oakeshott's work transcends the limits of familiar ideological labels, and his thought opens into deeper engagement with some of the most significant thinkers of the twentieth century, including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Taylor, Michel Foucault, and Hannah Arendt. Attending to these often unexpected or unrecognized affinities casts fresh light on some of Oakeshott's most familiar ideas and their systematic relations, and facilitates a better understanding of the breadth and depth of his political thought.
Download or read book A Companion to Michael Oakeshott written by Paul Franco and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A collection of critical essays by leading scholars on British political philosopher Michael Oakeshott. Essays cover all aspects of Oakeshott's thought, from his theory of knowledge and philosophies of history, religion, art, and education to his reflections on morality, politics, and law"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Michael Oakeshott on Religion Aesthetics and Politics written by Elizabeth Campbell Corey and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Argues that Oakeshott's views on aesthetics, religion, and morality, which she places in the Augustinian tradition, are intimately linked to a creative moral personality that underlies his political theorizing. Also compares Oakeshott's Rationalism to Voegelin's concept of Gnosticism and considers both thinkers' treatment of Hobbes to delineate their philosophical differences"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism written by Michael Oakeshott and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Oakeshott, the foremost British political philosopher of the twentieth century, died in 1990, leaving a substantial collection of unpublished material. Yale University Press is continuing to make available the best of these illuminating works. In this polished and hitherto unknown work, Oakeshott argues that modern politics was constituted out of a debate, persistent through centuries of European political experience down to our own day, over the question "What should governments do?" According to Oakeshott, two different answers have dominated our thought since the fifteenth century. One, exemplified by such thinkers as Rousseau and Marx, expresses a belief in the capacity of human beings to control, design, and monitor all aspects of social and political life, a belief fostered by the intoxicating increase in power available to governments in modern times. On the other hand, sceptics such as Montaigne, Pascal, and Hobbes argued that governments cannot, in principle, produce perfection and that we should prevent concentrations of power that may result in tyrannies that oppress the dignity of the human spirit. Oakeshott exposes the pitfalls of both positions and shows the value of a middle ground that incorporates scepticism with enough faith to avoid total quietism. Readers of Oakeshott will find here the thinking that lies behind his famous definition of politics as "the pursuit of intimations.".
Download or read book A Companion to Michael Oakeshott written by Paul Franco and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Oakeshott has long been recognized as one of the most important political philosophers of the twentieth century, but until now no single volume has been able to examine all the facets of his wide-ranging philosophy with sufficient depth, expertise, and authority. The essays collected here cover all aspects of Oakeshott’s thought, from his theory of knowledge and philosophies of history, religion, art, and education to his reflections on morality, politics, and law. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Corey Abel, David Boucher, Elizabeth Corey, Robert Devigne, Timothy Fuller, Steven Gerencser, Robert Grant, Noel Malcolm, Kenneth McIntyre, Kenneth Minogue, Noël O’Sullivan, Geoffrey Thomas, and Martyn Thompson.
Download or read book The Political Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott written by Paul Franco and published by . This book was released on 1990-04 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full-length study of the thought of Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990), arguably the most important British political philosopher of the twentieth century. Paul Franco places Oakeshott's political philosophy in the context of his ideas as a whole, drawing on all of his published writings. Franco begins with a detailed analysis of an early work, 'Experience and its Modes'. He argues that Oakeshott's vindication in this book of the possibility of philosophy and his establishment of its autonomy in relation to the limited standpoints of science, history and practice form the essential starting point of his political philosophy. Franco also examines the 'concrete' logic of human experience that underlies Oakeshott's analyses of the various forms of knowledge in 'Experience and its Modes'. According to Franco, this concrete logic not only establishes the basis of Oakeshott's influential theory of history, but it also provides the foundation for the view of practical activity found in the essays of 'Rationalism in Politics'. By reading these essays in the light of his early work, says Franco, we have a better understanding of Oakeshott's critique of rationalism as well as of his development of a richer, more contextual conception of rationality in opposition to it. We also see a revision of the conventional portrait of Oakeshott as a 'Burkean conservative', for Franco shows that Oakeshott's traditionalism rests on completely different grounds from that of Burke. Franco locates Oakeshott's substantive political philosophy within the liberal tradition as it had been elaborated from Hobbes through Hegel and Bosanquet. He concludes by demonstrating that in his theory of civil association in 'On Human Conduct', Oakeshott provides us with perhaps the most sophisticated and satisfying contemporary statement of liberalism to date. Paul Franco is William Rainey Harper Instructor at the University of Chicago.
Download or read book Experience and its Modes written by Michael Oakeshott and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is Michael Oakeshott's discussion of the relationships between the most important perspectives from which we experience the world.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott written by Terry Nardin and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-12-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive study of Michael Oakeshott as a philosopher rather than a political theorist, which is how most commentators have regarded him. Indeed, the careful reading of his published and unpublished writings that Terry Nardin provides here shows that Oakeshott's concerns have been primarily philosophical, not political. These writings go far beyond politics to offer a critical philosophy of human activity and of the disciplines that interpret and explain it. Oakeshott argues that inquiry can be independent of practical concerns, even when its subject is the thought and action of human beings. Although the book considers Oakeshott's views on morality, law, and government, it is primarily concerned with his ideas about the character of knowledge, especially knowledge of intelligent human conduct, and focuses attention on the concepts of modality, contingency, and civility that are central to Oakeshott's philosophy as a whole. Nardin seeks to show how Oakeshott's critique of scientism and other forms of foundationalism supports a powerful version of the argument that history is the proper mode for understanding human choice and action. The book thus provides the fullest discussion available of Oakeshott's antifoundationalist view of epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of history and the human sciences. It examines his arguments concerning the criteria of truth, the forms of knowledge, the relationship between theory and practice, the place of interpretation in the social sciences, the nature and importance of historical explanation, and the definition of philosophy itself. And it is the first study to look at Oakeshott's relationship to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and other movements in twentieth-century Continental philosophy.
Download or read book Michael Oakeshott on Hobbes written by Ian Tregenza and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2016-08-03 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Oakeshott is widely recognised to be one of the most original political philosophers of the twentieth century. He also developed a very influential interpretation of the ideas of the great seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbes. While many commentators have noted the importance of Hobbes for understanding Oakeshott’s thought itself, this is the first book to provide a systematic interpretation of Oakeshott’s philosophy by paying close attention to all facets of Oakeshott’s reading of Hobbes. On the surface, Oakeshott, the philosophical idealist and critic of rationalism in politics, would seem to have little in common with Hobbes, who is often regarded as a classic materialist and rationalist philosopher. This work shows, however, that despite appearances, there are many basic affinities between the two thinkers and that Oakeshott brought to the surface aspects of Hobbes’s thought that had previously been overlooked by Hobbes scholars. The development of Oakeshott’s own theory is shown to mirror changes in his reading of Hobbes and many of the distinctive features of Oakeshott’s thought including the modal and sceptical conception of human knowledge, the ‘morality of individuality’, the theory of civil association, and the critique of rationalism all find a fascinating focal point in his writings on Hobbes. Some attention is also paid to Oakeshott’s religious ideas, indicating what they share with Hobbes’s philosophy of religion. The book situates Oakeshott’s reading in relation to some other important twentieth century interpretations of Hobbes and examines its significance for broader debates in political theory and the history of ideas.
Download or read book Michael Oakeshott written by Paul Franco and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book Paul Franco provides an authoritative introduction to the life and thought of Michael Oakeshott, one of the most important philosophical voices of the twentieth century. After sketching a brief biography of Oakeshott, Franco then examines his most distinctive ideas, including his early idealist theory of knowledge, his influential critique of rationalism and central social planning, and his liberal theory of civil association. Though best known as a political philosopher, Oakeshott also made significant contributions to the philosophy of history, aesthetics, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of education. Franco highlights Oakeshott’s impressive achievements in each of these areas. His book is an essential introduction to the whole range of Oakeshott’s thought, and it sets the philosopher’s work in historical context while also demonstrating its relevance to contemporary debates in political philosophy.
Download or read book Politics and Experience written by Preston King and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-03 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume was compiled in 1968 to honour the retirement of the eminent political philosopher Professor Michael Oakeshott. Professor Oakeshott, widely regarded as one of the most important conservative intellectuals of the twentieth century, understood the need for political philosophy to conceive experience as a whole, and accordingly sought to address politics both historically and rationally. These essays engage with the common concerns of his major works, opportunistically exploring the ideas of this great thinker further. Moreover, they are a reflection of the contributors' academic interests, variously discussing tradition, the nature of political philosophy, ideology, revolution, education, history and rationalism. As the essays contained within are separate investigations of Oakeshott's ideas, they can be enjoyed both in and out of sequence. This volume will be of value to anyone with an appreciation of political philosophy and its history, and indeed, with an interest in the ideas of Professor Oakeshott himself.
Download or read book Michael Oakeshott s Political Philosophy of International Relations written by Davide Orsi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that Michael Oakeshott’s political philosophy contributes to current debates in normative international theory and international political theory on the historical, social, and moral dimension of international society. Davide Orsi contends that the theory of civil association may be the ground for an understanding of international society as a rule-based form of moral association constituted by customary international law. The book also considers the role of evolving practices of morality in debates on international justice. Orsi grounds this work on a study of Oakeshott’s philosophical arguments and compares the Oakeshottian perspective to recent constructivist literature in International Relations.
Download or read book The Meanings of Michael Oakeshott s Conservatism written by Corey Abel and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2017-03-06 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of recent scholarship on the thought of Michael Oakeshott includes essays by both distinguished and established authors as well as a fresh crop of younger talent. Together, they address the meanings of Oakeshott's conservatism through the lenses of his ideas on religion, history, and tradition, and explore his relationships to philosophers ranging from Hume to Ryle, Cavell, and others. The collection assigns no single or final meaning to Oakeshott's conservatism, but finds in him a number of possibilities for thinking fruitfully about what conservatism might mean, when it is no longer considered as a doctrine, but as a habit or a turn of mind.
Download or read book Michael Oakeshott the Ancient Greeks and the Philosophical Study of Politics written by Eric Steven Kos and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2016-07-20 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses a question fundamental for Oakeshott throughout his life, which is what we are doing when we read and discuss some memorable work in the history of political thought. The approach the book takes to Oakeshott’s response to this question is of particular interest in that it explores in detail extensive notes he made on the beginnings of political philosophy in ancient Greece in an unpublished set of notebooks in which he recorded his thoughts on many different subjects throughout his life. In addition, the book gives contemporary significance to Oakeshott’s interpretation of the history of political thought by using it to confront a series of contemporary challenges to the study of the history of political thought and to the study of the ‘great books.’ In particular, Oakeshott’s distinction between ‘various kinds or levels of political thought’ is carefully analyzed, as is also the extent of his agreement and disagreement with Quentin Skinner. In the concluding chapter, the author relates Oakeshott’s view of the nature of the history of political thought to his well-known description of philosophy as ‘conversation’, describing it as an introduction to that conversation.
Download or read book Lectures in the History of Political Thought written by Michael Oakeshott and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2011-10-24 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oakeshott's memorable lectures on the history of political thought, delivered each year at the London School of Economics, will now be available in print for the first time as Volume II of his Selected Writings. Based on manuscripts in the LSE archive for 1966–67, the last year of Oakeshott's tenure as Professor of Political Science, these thirty lectures deal with Greek, Roman, mediaeval, and modern European political thought in a uniquely accessible manner. Scholars familiar with Oakeshott’s work will recognize his own ideas subtly blended with an exposition carefully crafted for an undergraduate audience; those discovering Oakeshott for the first time will find an account of the subject that remains illuminating and provocative.
