Michael Oakeshott 1901 – 1990
Michael Oakeshott (1901 – 1990) was a British philosopher of the Contemporary era, associated with Political Philosophy.
Michael Oakeshott was a British political philosopher and one of the most distinctive English conservatives of the twentieth century. He held chairs at Cambridge, Oxford, and the London School of Economics, where he succeeded Harold Laski in the chair of political science. His Rationalism in Politics is a celebrated polemic against the supposition that political life can be derived from abstract principle, while On Human Conduct articulates a philosophical anthropology and a theory of the modes of civil association. His thought has shaped a non-doctrinal conservatism oriented toward practice and tradition.
Michael Oakeshott was born in 1901 at Chelsfield in Kent, the son of a senior civil servant. He read history at Caius College, Cambridge, took a fellowship there in 1925, and after an interrupted career — service in the Phantom reconnaissance unit during the Second World War, a period at Nuffield College, Oxford — succeeded Harold Laski in the chair of political science at the London School of Economics in 1951. He held it until his retirement in 1969.
His major works are Experience and its Modes (1933), the anthology The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe (1939), the essays of Rationalism in Politics (1962), On Human Conduct (1975), and the posthumously published lectures On History and The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Skepticism. His introduction to Hobbes's Leviathan (1946) is itself a small masterpiece.
Oakeshott distinguished theoretical and practical experience; he criticized rationalism in politics as the fallacy that practical wisdom can be reduced to abstractable rules; he distinguished the civil association of citizens under non-instrumental laws from the enterprise association of partners in a common purpose; and he insisted on the conversational rather than monological character of humane inquiry. His writings have made him one of the most subtle conservative voices in twentieth-century political philosophy. He died at Acton, Dorset in December 1990.
Key facts
- Nationality
- British
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Political Philosophy
Selected quotes
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“To be conservative is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded.”
Rationalism in Politics -
“In political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place nor appointed destination.”
Rationalism in Politics -
Attributed to Michael Oakeshott:
“Political education is learning how to participate in an arrangement.”
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Attributed to Michael Oakeshott:
“A tradition of behaviour is a tricky thing to get to know.”
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Attributed to Michael Oakeshott:
“The conduct of life is a conversation, not an inquiry.”
Michael Oakeshott by topic
Frequently asked about Michael Oakeshott
- When did Michael Oakeshott live?
- Michael Oakeshott was born in 1901 and died in 1990.
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- Michael Oakeshott was a British philosopher of the Contemporary era.
- What philosophical movements is Michael Oakeshott associated with?
- Michael Oakeshott was associated with Political Philosophy.
- What was Michael Oakeshott known for?
- Michael Oakeshott was a British political philosopher and one of the most distinctive English conservatives of the twentieth century.
- How many quotes are attributed to Michael Oakeshott?
- There are 15 attributed quotations from Michael Oakeshott in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.