For those who’ve never read that most subtle, cultivated, humane and refined of minds Michael Oakeshott’s concerns resonate as deeply as ever. For the novice, I’d recommend his mid-career Rationalism in Politics, a most elegant collection of essays. A more difficult, but for me the vital underpinning cutting across all his work, is his equally elegant and…
My chum and collaborator Paul Franco has a new edited book out. HegelLeo StraussPaul FrancoPhilosophy of history
Apart from his contributions to political philosophy, Oakeshott is perhaps best known for his contributions to the philosophy of history. Over the course of fifty years, from the important chapter on historical experience in Experience and Its Modes to the three essays on history in On History, Oakeshott applied himself to investigating the nature and…
For those who’ve never read that most subtle, cultivated, humane and refined of minds Michael Oakeshott’s concerns resonate as deeply as ever. For the novice, I’d recommend his mid-career Rationalism in Politics, a most elegant collection of essays. A more difficult, but for me the vital underpinning cutting across all his work, is his equally elegant and…
An interesting and novel invocation (context-wise) of Oakeshott by Michael Fried in The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics experience and its modesignoratio elenchimathematicsMichael FriedMichael OakeshottmodalityPhilosophy of historyphilosophy of mathematics
Born on this day, that most subtle, civilized, cultivated, elegant, insightful, humane and liberal quality of mind. For all things Oakeshottian check out the Michael Oakeshott Association, the unaffiliated Michael Oakeshott Society, loads of stuff on this site including a very rare BBC recording of Oakeshott on the philosophy of history, and last, but no means least, A Companion to…
John Gray very warmly reviews Francis O’Gorman’s Forgetfulness: Making the Modern Culture of Amnesia. Trying to control culture from a rationalistic perspective is bound to frustrate: the upshot is that cultural marxists have to double down, manifest as even more authoritarian. Their whole project is akin to “pissing in the wind” but we pay a grim price…
aestheticsBritish Idealismhistory of political thoughtMichael Oakeshottphilosophical jurisprudencePhilosophyPhilosophy of EducationPhilosophy of historyPhilosophy of mindPolitical philosophyrationalismReligion & SpiritualityThomas Hobbes
Some 30 years ago I first read Gilbert Allardyce’s article in The American Historical Review, Vol. 84, No. 2 (Apr., 1979), pp. 367-388. With the interim years the piece has come to be regarded as somewhat of a classic: it was most useful then and even more so now. It certainly seems that even then…
Ed Smith in the New Statesman. A Guide to the ClassicsConservatismGuy GriffithLiberalismMichael OakeshottPhilosophy of history
