In “Oakeshott on Civil Association,” Noël O’Sullivan offers a magisterial account of Oakeshott’s ideal of civil association, showing that it is addressed above all to the moral problem of reconciling authority with freedom in the highly pluralistic circumstances of modern Europe. Hobbes made significant progress in this normative endeavor to find a shared sense of…
Born on this day: here are his SEP and IEP entries. Oddly enough neither lists Noël O’Sullivan’s nice little book, an overview by Max Teichmann here. “Catholic freethinker” was the playful label Bertrand Russell affixed to George Santayana, and a back-handed tribute to the readiness of the Spanish-American to examine, respectfully, many other systems of thought…
Coming soon from Imprint Academic, edited by the very excellent Noel O’Sullivan. IdealismLiberalismMichael Oakeshottnoel o’sullivanPolitical philosophy
Here are some extracts from Noel’s essay, the penultimate chapter (also check out two new pieces by Noel found here). The distinctive achievement of Western political thought since the seventeenth century is the ideal of the limited state. Despite extensive theorizing about this ideal, however, there has always been profound disagreement about its precise nature…
The very excellent Noël has kindly made available two new articles that he has written for non-English language journals. Noël is also a contributor to the Companion. a companion to michael oakeshottcivil associationLiberal educationMichael Oakeshottnoel o’sullivan
A trailer from Noel O’Sullivan‘s essay. The distinctive achievement of Western political thought since the seventeenth century is the ideal of the limited state. Despite extensive theorizing about this ideal, however, there has always been profound disagreement about its precise nature and implications. The full extent of this disagreement has been especially evident during the…
manwithoutqualities 