Rationalism in Politics established the late Michael Oakeshott as the leading conservative political theorist in modern Britain. This expanded collection of essays astutely points out the limits of reason in rationalist politics and criticizes ideological schemes to reform society according to supposedly scientific or rationalistic principles that ignore the wealth and variety of human experience.

Timothy Fuller is Professor of Political Science at Colorado College.

By 1989, when Michael Oakeshott's Voice of Liberal Learning was first published by Yale University Press, books that held a negative view of education in the United States had garnered a remarkable amount of attention.

Oakeshott's approach to the subject is subtle, comprehensive, and radical--in the sense of summoning readers to the root of the matter. That root, Oakeshott believed, is the very nature of learning itself and, concomitantly, the means (as distinct from the method) by which the life of learning is discovered, cultivated, and pursued.

Timothy Fuller is Professor of Political Science at Colorado College.

When it first appeared in 1933, Experience and its Modes was not considered a classic. But as philosophical fashion moved away from the analytic philosophy of the 1930s, this work began to seem ahead of its time. Arguing that experience is 'modal', in the sense that we always have a theoretical or practical perspective on the world, Michael Oakeshott explores the nature of philosophical experience and its relationship to three of the most important 'modes' of non-philosophical experience - science, history and practice - seeking to establish the autonomy and superiority of philosophy. In recognition of its enduring importance, this book is presented in a fresh series livery for a new generation of readers, featuring a specially commissioned preface written by Paul Franco.

Michael Oakeshott's lifelong interest in religion and its relation to politics is made explicit in this collection of essays. It comprises four important unpublished pieces, together with a further six which originally appeared in remote and inaccessible journals, and provides an illuminating complement to Oakeshott's best-known writings. Much of the collection emanates from his early career, and reveals not only his initial intellectual preoccupations, but the nature of his religious outlook, the moral convictions that governed the life he himself lived, and his sense of what it means to live 'religiously' in the world. What the essays disclose is a view of a moral life without fixities, but with choices of conduct in accord with one's self-understanding. Faith lies not in resisting but exploring life's contingencies, seeking an imaginative response to the events that come one's way. Oakeshott's writing is persuasive and compelling, and the essays offer a calm and civil dissent from the dominant rationalism of our time. In a substantial introduction, Timothy Fuller provides the first full explanation of Oakeshott's religious ideas, setting them within their philosophic context. He shows how, in these essays, Oakeshott elaborated the implications of 'Experience and its Modes', worked out his political theory as summarized in 'Rationalism in Politics', and gradually assembled his own philosophical account of the ideal that European civilization had made concrete in history - civil association under the rule of law - and to which he gave definitive expression in 'On Human Conduct'. Michael Oakeshott was born in 1901 and educated at the Universities of Cambridge, Tubingen and Marburg. A fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, he was appointed to the chair of Political Science at the London School of Economics in 1950. He died in 1990. His publications include 'Experience and its Modes' (1933), and edition of Hobbes's 'Leviathan' (1946), 'Rationalism in Politics' (1962), 'On Human Conduct' (1975) and 'The Voice of Liberal Learning' (1989). Timothy Fuller was Dean of the College, Colorado College, and editor of 'The Voice of Liberal Learning: Michael Oakeshott on Education'.

This volume brings together for the first time over a hundred of Oakeshott's essays and reviews, written between 1926 and 1951, that until now have remained scattered through a variety of scholarly journals, periodicals and newspapers. A new editorial introduction explains how these pieces, including the lengthy essay on the philosophical nature of jurisprudence that occupies an important position in Oakeshott's work, illuminate his other published writings. The collection throws new light on the context of his thought by placing him in dialogue with a number of other major figures in the humanities and social sciences during this period, including Leo Strauss, A.N. Whitehead, Karl Mannheim, Herbert Butterfield, E.H. Carr, Gilbert Ryle, and R.G. Collingwood.

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.

Rationalism in Politics established the late Michael Oakeshott as the leading conservative political theorist in modern Britain. This expanded collection of essays astutely points out the limits of reason in rationalist politics and criticizes ideological schemes to reform society according to supposedly scientific or rationalistic principles that ignore the wealth and variety of human experience.

Timothy Fuller is Professor of Political Science at Colorado College.

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.

Thomas Hobbes est le seul penseur de la tradition philosophique a qui le philosophe britannique Michael Oakeshott consacra entierement l'un de ses livres, un recueil d'essais et de conferences qu'il publia en 1975 sous le titre de Hobbes on Civil Association. A quoi tient l'importance decisive reconnue ainsi a l'oeuvre de Hobbes, et quel role particulier joua la pensee de Hobbes dans l'elaboration de la pensee de Oakeshott lui-meme? Le titre donne au recueil donne une indication precieuse. Tant d'un point de vue philosophique que d'un point de vue historique, Oakeshott a en effet thematise a travers le concept d' association civile un mode d'association politique precis des hommes, celui dans lequel les individus sont lies par le respect de certaines regles et de certaines pratiques, mais non par une fin commune unique. C'est dans cette perspective que Oakeshott a pu opposer la nomocratie d'une societas a la teleocratie d'une universitas, c'est-a-dire d'un Etat qui se donnerait comme mission d'imposer un meme objectif a tous ses membres. La lecture que fait Oakeshott de Hobbes est ainsi tres clairement une lecture liberale: il comprend Hobbes comme un penseur du cadre formel d'une societas, et non pas d'une universitas, c'est-a-dire comme un penseur, precisement, de l' association civile . Afin de permettre l'evaluation d'une telle lecture, la traduction de l'ouvrage de Oakeshott, la premiere en langue francaise, est accompagnee de la traduction de cinq autres essais que l'auteur a consacres a Hobbes entre 1935 et 1974.

In this carefully reasoned work, discovered after Michael Oakeshott's death in 1990 and here published for the first time, the preeminent political philosopher describes the fundamental dichotomy that has divided discussion of the role of government in Europe since the Renaissance. Oakeshott exposes the weaknesses of each opposing position and proposes a middle ground, incorporating some scepticism and some faith. By general consensus, Oakeshott is the most striking and original British political thinker of the century. . . . Anyone interested in the nature of politics and government will find this book of interest, and many will want to direct their senior students to it as an accessible introduction to Oakeshott's thought.-William Christian, University of Guelph, Perspectives on Political Science The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism is concerned to trace the deepest and most permanent features of the modern European political landscape over the last five hundred years, and this it does in an original, insightful, and frequently eloquent manner. We are fortunate that the book has finally seen the light of day.-Paul Franco, Bowdoin College, Political Theory We are grateful to the editor Tim Fuller for making available this little gem that combines philosophical insight and historical investigation in the exposure of the two 'styles' of modern European politics, without the elaborate prose to which Oakeshott has accustomed his readers: the absence of the typical flamboyant style that characterizes Oakeshott's published works, enables us to grasp his line of thought in the making and renders his arguments crystal clear. . . . A sublime mememto.-Giovanni Giorgini, Political Studies

Specialiste mondialement renomme de Hobbes et professeur de sciences politiques a la prestigieuse London School of economics, le philosophe Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990) est une figure intellectuelle britannique majeure. D'une sensibilite conservatrice a tendance libertarienne mais surtout foncierement sceptique en politique et de fait inclassable, il est l'auteur d'uneOEuvre plus considerable en densite qu'en quantite - dont un titre (De la conduite humaine, PUF, 1995) a deja ete traduit en francais.Dans Morale et politique dans l'Europe moderne (1958), ce non-conformiste visceral soutient la these originale et decapante que l'histoire de la pensee politique occidentale se caracterise essentiellement par le developpement et l'antagonisme de deux theories: l'individualisme (l'association civile d'individus autonomes avec le moins de gouvernement possible), qui a sa nette preference, et le collectivisme (sous les deux visages productiviste et distributif ) - l'un et l'autre sous-tendus par des positions morales premieres.

When it first appeared in 1933, Experience and its Modes was not considered a classic. But as philosophical fashion moved away from the analytic philosophy of the 1930s, this work began to seem ahead of its time. Arguing that experience is 'modal', in the sense that we always have a theoretical or practical perspective on the world, Michael Oakeshott explores the nature of philosophical experience and its relationship to three of the most important 'modes' of non-philosophical experience - science, history and practice - seeking to establish the autonomy and superiority of philosophy. In recognition of its enduring importance, this book is presented in a fresh series livery for a new generation of readers, featuring a specially commissioned preface written by Paul Franco.

On Human Conduct is composed of three connected essays. Each has its own concern: the first with theoretical understanding, and with human conduct in general; the second with an ideal mode of human relationship which the author has called civil association; and the third with that ambiguous, historic association commonly called a modern European state.
Running through the work is Professor Oakshott's belief in philosophical reflection as an adventure: the adventure of one who seeks to understand in other terms what he already understands, and where the understanding is sought is a disclosure of the conditions of the understanding enjoyed and not a substitute for it. Its most appropriate expression is an essay, which, he writes, does not dissemble the conditionality of the conclusions it throws up and although it may enlighten it does not instruct.

Para Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990), o desafio espec fico dos historiadores deixar de lado quaisquer preocupa es de ordem pr tica ou ideol gica em sua abordagem do passado, pois uma das maiores ilus es do ser humano a cren a em sistemas que nos levar o perfei o final numa terra prometida. Desafio extremamente dif cil, porque geralmente nosso interesse predominante n o est na Hist ria em si, mas na pol tica retrospectiva, e temos a tend ncia a transformar sistemas filos ficos em evangelhos. Sobre a Hist ria (1983) re ne cinco ensaios do pensador ingl s que abordam temas centrais da ci ncia pol tica, como a natureza da Hist ria, o primado da lei e a luta pelo poder inerente condi o humana. Oakeshott se destaca entre os fil sofos pol ticos modernos por ter levado at os limites do entendimento humano suas d vidas quanto aos fundamentos racionais. um equ voco, por m, classific -lo como c tico; ao contr rio, sua compreens o da liberdade decorre do fato de acreditar que n o estamos condenados a obter e gastar -- dan a macabra das necessidades e satisfa es -- e que existem diferentes maneiras de respondermos ao mundo. A original abordagem hist rica deste pensador ingl s foi forjada pela leitura de S crates, Santo Agostinho, Montaigne e Hobbes, mas ele n o entendia os cl ssicos como reposit rios de conhecimentos e li es de uso pr tico, e sim como introdu es a modos de pensar.