In anticipation of a talk I’m giving later on in the week on Oakeshott’s so-called “dispositional conservatism”, here is a nice little piece by my chum Gene Callahan serving as a good introduction to RIP. The British philosopher and historian Michael Oakeshott is a curious figure in twentieth-century intellectual history. He is known mostly as…
Yet more Oakeshottiana. Here is a brief review by Elizabeth Corey of The Meanings of Michael Oakeshott’s Conservatism (table of contents). Corey summarizes why Oakeshott’s supposed conservatism equally frustrates self-avowed conservatives and liberal critics: in the second excerpt she neatly captures the appeal of Oakeshott for someone such as myself. (See also another recent posting). In…
Whatever difficulties one might find with Andrew’s eclectic philosophical reconciliation (queer theory, Catholicism, conservatism) he captures the essence of Oakeshott very well he in this “elevator speech.” Oakeshott’s so-called “conservatism” bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the ossified character attributed to conservatism by “conservatives” of a fundamentalist stripe. In any event, ideologies are far more fluid…
My chum and co-editor for A Companion to Michael Oakeshott here talking about the Heidegger controversy and here on Friedrich Nietzsche on Liberal Education. See Paul’s Amazon listing. Martin HeideggerMichael OakeshottNazism
Here’s a very recent paper from the Philosophy of Education. Here is the correct link for Francis Schrag’s reference to Bob Grant’s “On Writing Michael Oakeshott’s Biography.” Speaking of which, Bob Grant has written a fantastic biographical essay “The Pursuit of Intimacy, or Rationalism in Love” for Paul and my Companion. Bob GrantMichael OakeshottPhilosophy of Educationrationalism
A review in The Economist of Stefan Collini’s What Are Universities For? The best articulation of the instrumental/intrinsic debate is still Oakeshott’s The Voice of Liberal Learning. Here is the first essay from VLL online. And Paul Franco is tackling this topic for the Oakeshott Companion. Mr Collini is moved by Newman’s insistence that a liberal education is…
My chum and the new president of the Michael Oakeshott Association, Elizabeth Corey, has just had this article published in First Things. Since this article is by subscription, I will only post a couple of extracts that caught my eye. Elizabeth is an excellent scholar whose chapter entitled “The Religious Sensibility of Michael Oakeshott” will be…
Roger Scruton weighs in on the nature/nurture debate via a threefold review. (Image another Steve Pyke portrait). Roger Scrutonsteve pyke
Given that issues of freedom of speech are in the news here is a philosophical take on the notion of Freedom of Speech.
We know it’s been a long time in coming but we have some blindingly superb essays comprising this volume. In lieu of conventional abstracts here is an extract from Paul and my introductory essay. For a full table of contents and a dedicated website see here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial Extract The first two essays deal with…
manwithoutqualities 