Michael Oakeshott and Leo Strauss
Michael Oakeshott and Leo Strauss

Author: David McIlwain

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-03-14

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 3030133818

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This book compares the thought of Michael Oakeshott and Leo Strauss, bringing Oakeshott’s desire for a renaissance of poetic individuality into dialogue with Strauss’s recovery of the universality of philosophical enlightenment. Starting from the conventional understanding of these thinkers as important voices of twentieth-century conservatism, McIlwain traces their deeper and more radical commitments to the highpoints of human achievement and their shared concerns with the fate of traditional inheritances in modernity, the role and meaning of history, the intention and meaning of political philosophy, and the problem of politics and religion. The book culminates in an articulation of the positions of Oakeshott and Strauss as part of the quarrel of poetry and philosophy, revealing the ongoing implications of their thinking in terms of the profound spiritual and political questions raised by modern thinkers such as Hobbes, Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger and leading back to foundational figures of Western civilization including St. Augustine and Socrates.

Hobbes on Civil Association
Hobbes on Civil Association

Author: Michael Oakeshott

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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Of Michael Oakeshott and his interest in Thomas Hobbes, Professor Paul Franco has written, "The themes Oakeshott stresses in his interpretation of Hobbes are . . . skepticism about the role of reason in politics, allegiance to the morality of individuality as opposed to any sort of collectivism, and the principle of a noninstrumental, nonpurposive mode of political association, namely, civil association." Of Hobbes's Leviathan, Oakeshott has written, "Leviathan is the greatest, perhaps the sole, masterpiece of political philosophy written in the English language." Hobbes on Civil Association consists of Oakeshott's four principal essays on Hobbes and on the nature of civil association as civil association pertains to ordered liberty. The essays are "Introduction to Leviathan" (1946); "The Moral Life in the Writings of Thomas Hobbes" (1960); "Dr. Leo Strauss on Hobbes" (1937); and, "Leviathan: A Myth" (1947). The foreword remarks the place of these essays within Oakeshott's entire corpus. Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990) was Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics and the author of many essays, among them those collected in Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays and On History and Other Essays, both now published by Liberty Fund. Paul Franco is a Professor in the Department of Government at Bowdoin College.

Recasting Conservatism
Recasting Conservatism

Author: Robert Devigne

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1996-08-28

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780300068689

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Explores how conservative thought in the work of Oakeshott and Strauss and their followers responds to the postmodern loss of tradition, morality, and authority in contemporary British and American society. The work also compares each theory to previous political outlooks in both countries.

The Poetic Character of Human Activity
The Poetic Character of Human Activity

Author: Wendell John Coats

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2012-07-21

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 0739171623

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The Poetic Character of Human Activity is a collection of essays by two Oakeshott scholars, most of which explores the meaning of Oakeshott’s pregnant phrase, “the poetic character of human activity” by comparing and contrasting this idea with similar and opposing ones, in particular those of the Taoist thinker, Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), and his Western interpreter, A.C. Graham. Oakeshott’s deep appreciation of the poetic and non-instrumental character of human activity led him to develop an interest in the works of Zhuangzi and Confucius. Comparison of shared themes between Oakeshott and these two Chinese thinkers facilitates appreciation of his elegant analytic style and his resort to use of metaphors and story-telling when conveying some of his most profound insights. The collection also contains essays contrasting Oakeshott’s idea of the “creative” in human experience with views of, among others, Plato, Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin. Oakeshott used the phrase “the poetic character of human activity” (arguably the animating center of his entire thought), to refer to the “creative” character of human experiential reality, that is, to the fact that the form (the how) and content (the what) of all human experience and activity arise simultaneously and fluidly, and can be separated only at the expense of theoretical coherence and practical skill. The various essays in this collection explore the meaning of this claim, and its ramifications for the proper role of critical intellect in especially philosophy, morality, learning, and governance. There is also some brief contrast of Oakeshott with John Rawls, Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and Quentin Skinner.

Political Philosophy in the Twentieth Century
Political Philosophy in the Twentieth Century

Author: Catherine H. Zuckert

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-08-29

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1139502972

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This book demonstrates the rich diversity and depth of political philosophy in the twentieth century. Catherine H. Zuckert has compiled a collection of essays recounting the lives of political theorists, connecting each biography with the theorist's life work and explaining the significance of the contribution to modern political thought. The essays are organized to highlight the major political alternatives and approaches. Beginning with essays on John Dewey, Carl Schmitt and Antonio Gramsci, representing the three main political alternatives - liberal, fascist and communist - at mid-century, the book proceeds to consider the lives and works of émigrés such as Hannah Arendt, Eric Voegelin, and Leo Strauss, who brought a continental perspective to the United States after World War II. The second half of the collection contains essays on recent defenders of liberalism, such as Friedrich Hayek, Isaiah Berlin and John Rawls and liberalism's many critics, including Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas and Alasdair MacIntyre.

A Companion to Michael Oakeshott
A Companion to Michael Oakeshott

Author: Paul Franco

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2015-06-26

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 0271068477

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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.

In Defence of Modernity
In Defence of Modernity

Author: Efraim Podoksik

Publisher: Andrews UK Limited

Published: 2013-05-14

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 184540467X

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Although Oakeshott's philosophy has received considerable attention, the vision which underlies it has been almost completely ignored. This vision, which is rooted in the intellectual debates of his epoch, cements his ideas into a coherent whole and provides a compelling defence of modernity. The main feature of Oakeshott's vision of modernity is seen here as radical plurality resulting from 'fragmentation' of experience and society. On the level of experience, modernity denies the existence of the hierarchical medieval scheme and argues that there exist independent ways of understanding our world, such as science and history, which cannot be reduced to each other. On the level of society, modernity finds expression in liberal doctrine, according to which society is an aggregate of individuals each pursuing his or her own choices. For Oakeshott, to be modern means not only to recognise this condition of radical plurality but also to learn to appreciate and enjoy it. Oakeshott did not think that it was possible to find a comprehensive philosophical justification for modernity, therefore the only way to preserve modern civilisation seemed to be an appeal to sentiment. As a consequence he was a passionate defender of liberal education as the best way to underwrite the 'conversation of mankind.'

The Limits of Political Theory
The Limits of Political Theory

Author: Kenneth B. McIntyre

Publisher: Andrews UK Limited

Published: 2015-10-15

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1845403800

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This book examines Oakeshott's political philosophy within the context of his more general conception of philosophical understanding. The book stresses the underlying continuity of his major writings on the subject and takes seriously the implications of understanding the world in terms of modality. The book suggests strongly that Oakeshott's philosophy of political activity cannot be reduced to a branch of conservatism, liberalism, or postmodernism or a theory or set of doctrines which fit neatly into any conventional school, like that of Idealism or Skepticism. Rather, Oakeshott’s philosophy of political activity is a provocation to all of the currently dominant schools of political theory and political practice. It questions their presuppositions and exposes as ambiguous, arbitrary, or confused all of the supposed certainties which they take for granted. It does all this by offering profound insights into the character and limits of both political activity and political theory in the modern world.