A Companion to Michael Oakeshott

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.

“This timely collection brings together an important set of essays exploring various aspects of the philosophy of Michael Oakeshott. For those unacquainted with Oakeshott's brilliant but sometimes enigmatic writings on civil association, history, the nature of human experience, education, and political authority, this volume stands as a tribute to his growing intellectual stature in the twenty-first century. It shows just how far Oakeshott studies in the Anglophone world have come in the past two decades, and it lays out a path for where they might productively go in the future.”—Richard Boyd, Georgetown University

“Michael Oakeshott remains one of the great political philosophers of the twentieth century. Yet his writings—at least in America—rarely get the time or attention they deserve. This wonderful anthology beautifully covers virtually every aspect of Oakeshott’s life and thought. It helps us appreciate Oakeshott’s own voice in the conversation of mankind.”—Steven Smith, Yale University

“Paul Franco and Leslie Marsh have put together a companion that does something that few companions actually do: it provides a serious introduction to the man and to the full range of his thought. The book does a nice job of locating Oakeshott in relation to other thinkers and of bringing out Oakeshott’s distinctive intellectual style. This is a book anyone who is starting in on Oakeshott can greatly benefit from, and which anyone who knows Oakeshott will enjoy.”—Stephen Turner, University of South Florida

“This book is handsomely produced, easily readable, and having a good reproduction of Bruegel’s The Tower of Babel on the dust jacket was an inspired choice.”—John Kekes, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

“A Companion to Michael Oakeshott can therefore legitimately claim to serve as an authoritative guide to Oakeshott’s thought. It will be of great value to advanced scholars as well as students unfamiliar with his ideas.”—Martin Beckstein, Political Studies Review

Paul Franco is Professor of Government at Bowdoin College.

Leslie Marsh is Assistant Director of the New England Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Studies and a Research Associate in the Dean’s Office of the Medical School at the University of British Columbia.

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Paul Franco and Leslie Marsh

1 The Pursuit of Intimacy, or Rationalism in Love

Robert Grant

Part One: The Conversation of Mankind

2 The Victim of Thought: The Idealist Inheritance

David Boucher

3 Philosophy and Its Moods: Oakeshott on the Practice of Philosophy

Kenneth McIntyre

4 Michael Oakeshott’s Philosophy of History

Geoffrey Thomas

5 Radical Temporality and the Modern Moral Imagination: Two Themes in the Thought of Michael Oakeshott

Timothy Fuller

6 The Religious Sensibility of Michael Oakeshott

Elizabeth Corey

7 Whatever It Turns Out to Be: Oakeshott on Aesthetic Experience

Corey Abel

8 Un Début dans la Vie Humaine: Michael Oakeshott on Education

Paul Franco

Part Two: Political Philosophy

9 Michael Oakeshott on the History of Political Thought

Martyn Thompson

10 Oakeshott and Hobbes

Noel Malcolm

11 The Fate of Rationalism in Oakeshott’s Thought

Kenneth Minogue

12 Oakeshott and Hayek: Situating the Mind

Leslie Marsh

13 Oakeshott as Conservative

Robert Devigne

14 Oakeshott on Civil Association

Noël O’Sullivan

15 Oakeshott on Law

Steven Gerencser

Notes on Contributors

Index

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Philosophy

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Political Science

           Political Theory