Book description
Michael Oakeshott (1901 90) made his reputation as a political
philosopher, but for a long time it seemed as if he had little interest
in politics before 1945. His major pre-war work, Experience and its
Modes (1933) was an examination of the nature of philosophy and its
relation to other forms of thought that made almost no mention of
politics. However, it has become increasingly clear that this initial
judgment was misleading. A posthumous collection of early essays,
Religion, Politics, and the Moral Life (1993), proved that political
philosophy was a lifelong concern. Nevertheless, the belief that
Oakeshott was relatively uninterested in politics, at least in the
1920s, has persisted. This volume dispels that notion for good. It
contains two previously unpublished works, a manuscript entitled 'A
Discussion of some Matters preliminary to the Study of Political
Philosophy', and the first version of a course of lectures on 'The
Philosophical Approach to Politics' that Oakeshott gave between 1928 and
1930. These works establish that politics was a central concern in the
first decade of his intellectual career, and show beyond any doubt that
the ideas of Experience and its Modes actually grew out of Oakeshott's
prior philosophical interest in politics. Michael Oakeshott (1901 90)
made his reputation as a political philosopher, but for a long time it
seemed as if he had little interest in politics before 1945. His major
pre-war work, Experience and its Modes (1933) was an examination of the
nature of philosophy and its relation to other forms of thought that
made almost no mention of politics. However, it has become increasingly
clear that this initial judgment was misleading. A posthumous collection
of early essays, Religion, Politics, and the Moral Life (1993), proved
that political philosophy was a lifelong concern. Nevertheless, the
belief that Oakeshott was relatively uninterested in politics, at least
in the 1920s, has persisted. This volume dispels that notion for good.
It contains two previously unpublished works, a manuscript entitled 'A
Discussion of some Matters preliminary to the Study of Political
Philosophy', and the first version of a course of lectures on 'The
Philosophical Approach to Politics' that Oakeshott gave between 1928 and
1930. These works establish that politics was a central concern in the
first decade of his intellectual career, and show beyond any doubt that
the ideas of Experience and its Modes actually grew out of Oakeshott's
prior philosophical interest in politics.
