Michael Oakeshott 1901 – 1990
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.
Key facts
- Nationality
- British
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Political
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Michael Oakeshott:
“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.”
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Attributed to Michael Oakeshott:
“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.”
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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.”