Book description
This highly readable new collection of thirty pieces by Michael
Oakeshott, almost all of which are previously unpublished, covers every
decade of his intellectual career, and adds significantly to his
contributions to the philosophy of historical understanding and
political philosophy, as well as to the philosophy of education and
aesthetics. The essays were intended mostly for lectures or seminars,
and are consequently in an informal style that will be accessible to new
readers as well as to those already well acquainted with Oakeshott s
works. Early pieces include a long essay On the Relations of Philosophy,
Poetry, and Reality , and Oakeshott s comments on The Cambridge School
of Political Science through which he himself had passed as an
undergraduate. The collection also reproduces a substantial wartime
essay On Peace with Germany . There are two new essays on the philosophy
of education, and the essay which gives the work its title, What is
History? , is just one of over half a dozen discussions of the nature of
historical knowledge. Oakeshott s later sceptical, hermeneutic , thought
is also well represented by pieces such as What is Political Theory? and
The Emergence of the History of Thought. Reviews of books by English and
European contemporaries such as Butterfield, Hayek, Voegelin, and Arendt
also help to place him in context more clearly than before. The book
will be indispensable for all Oakeshott s readers, no matter which area
of his thought concerns them most. This highly readable new collection
of thirty pieces by Michael Oakeshott, almost all of which are
previously unpublished, covers every decade of his intellectual career,
and adds significantly to his contributions to the philosophy of
historical understanding and political philosophy, as well as to the
philosophy of education and aesthetics. The essays were intended mostly
for lectures or seminars, and are consequently in an informal style that
will be accessible to new readers as well as to those already well
acquainted with Oakeshott s works. Early pieces include a long essay On
the Relations of Philosophy, Poetry, and Reality , and Oakeshott s
comments on The Cambridge School of Political Science through which he
himself had passed as an undergraduate. The collection also reproduces a
substantial wartime essay On Peace with Germany . There are two new
essays on the philosophy of education, and the essay which gives the
work its title, What is History? , is just one of over half a dozen
discussions of the nature of historical knowledge. Oakeshott s later
sceptical, hermeneutic , thought is also well represented by pieces such
as What is Political Theory? and The Emergence of the History of
Thought. Reviews of books by English and European contemporaries such as
Butterfield, Hayek, Voegelin, and Arendt also help to place him in
context more clearly than before. The book will be indispensable for all
Oakeshott s readers, no matter which area of his thought concerns them
most.
