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Of Love and Politics

Aurelian Craiutu reviews Oakeshott’s Notebooks, 1922-86. I don’t share the view that: If Oakeshott were alive today, he would welcome the fact that “the politics of faith” against which he wrote memorable pages seem to have lost some of its appeal. I think that the centre has not held at all and is at its narrowest band…

A. E. Housman on Editorship

I’ve always felt that Housman was one of the sharpest and most insightful intellects of his day and certainly beyond, a caste of mind not terribly dissimilar to that other danger man, Bernard Williams. In critical mode reading them is akin to handling razor blades. Below is Housman as scathing classicist. After that is Richard Dawkins reading some…

Peter Viereck

Born on this day What keeps earth air breathable? Not oxygen alone. The earth is a freer place to breathe in, every time you love without calculating a return — every time you make your drudgeries and routines still more inefficient by stopping to experience the shock of beauty wherever it unpredictably flickers. All creeds…

JOHN GRAY ON HAYEK

Gray assesses Hayek’s life and work. For those interested in the Encounter piece “My Cousin, Ludwig Wittgenstein” here it is. Equally, and perhaps also happily, Thatcher had no understanding of Hayek’s ideas. Austrian EconomicsConservatismdispersed knowledgedistributed knowledgeFree marketFriedrich Hayekjohn graykeynesLiberalismLibertyLudwig WittgensteinMargaret Thatchersocialism

Some More Recent Oakeshottiana

1. Michael Oakeshott’s Skepticism 2. Oakeshott on Practice, Normative Thought and Political Philosophy 3. Michael Oakeshott’s political philosophy of civil association and constructivism in International Relations civil associationConservatismconstructivismDavide Orsi.international relationsLiberalismMichael OakeshottnormativismPolitical philosophyskepticism

OAKESHOTT’S PILGRIMAGE PAST J.S. MILL

Recent article by the “dean” of Oakshott studies Generally speaking, those who pursue political philosophy feel an affinity with Mill more than with Oakeshott at this point. It is not that Oakeshott stands in the way of change; on the contrary, he accepts change as natural to humanity; the real objection is that he does…

A DANSE MACABRE OF WANTS AND SATISFACTIONS

In Austrian Economic Perspectives on Individualism and Society: Moving Beyond Methodological Individualism In this chapter our aim is to rescue the meaning of liberty from the ministrations of its misguided friends and explore how it relates to human nature, culture, and economic order. Some Austrian economists have embraced liberty as the sole value. Despite the…