Introduction by the Blog Author
Michael Oakeshott
"This majestic work by the greatest living British philosopher of conservative disposition is preeminently a grand adventure....Oakeshott has here added to our common stock one more such distinction--the one between rule-governed associations and purpose-governed associations. In so doing, he has given us a fresh and memorable definition of political liberty. And that, besides so much else, is cause for gratitude and celebration."--National Review
In his essay "On Being Conservative" (1956), Oakeshott explained what he regarded as the conservative disposition: "To be conservative ... is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss."
Oakeshott's political philosophy, as advanced in On Human Conduct (1975), is removed any form of party politics. The book's first part ("On the Theoretical Understanding of Human Conduct") develops a theory of human action as the exercise of intelligent agency in activities such as wanting and choosing, the second ("On the Civil Condition") discusses the formal conditions of association appropriate to such intelligent agents, described as "civil" or legal association, and the third ("On the Character of a Modern European State") examines how far this understanding of human association has affected politics and political ideas in post-Renaissance European history.
Oakeshott suggests that there had been two major modes or understandings of human social organization. In the first, which he calls "enterprise association" (or universitas), the state is understood as imposing some universal purpose (profit, salvation, progress, racial domination) on its subjects. By contrast, "civil association" (or societas) is primarily a legal relationship in which laws impose obligatory conditions of action but do not require choosing one action rather than another.
The complex, often technical style of On Human Conduct found few readers, and its initial reception was mostly one of bafflement. Oakeshott, who rarely responded to critics, used an article in the journal Political Theory to reply sardonically to some of the contributions made at a symposium on the book.
In his retirement he retreated to live quietly in a country cottage in Langton Matravers inDorset .
He lived long enough to see growing recognition, although he has become far
more widely written about since his death.
Oakeshott refused an offer of being made a Companion of Honour, for which he was proposed by Margaret Thatcher.
Cambridge Professor Michael
Oakeshott wrote a book in 1974 of three essays entitled On Human Conduct. It was
published in 1975 and reprinted as a paperback in 1991.
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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 Oakeshott'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."
Running through the work is Professor Oakeshott'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."
Editorial Reviews
"Oakeshott presents three
essays: on the theoretical understanding of human conduct, on the civil
condition as the ideal mode of human association, and on the modern European
state....His book is like a long elegant conversation--sometimes rather
abstract, always with a keen eye for concrete exemplification, learned,
analytical, and full of trenchant insights."--Library Journal
"This majestic work by the greatest living British philosopher of conservative disposition is preeminently a grand adventure....Oakeshott has here added to our common stock one more such distinction--the one between rule-governed associations and purpose-governed associations. In so doing, he has given us a fresh and memorable definition of political liberty. And that, besides so much else, is cause for gratitude and celebration."--National Review
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On
Human Conduct and Oakeshott's Political Theory
In his essay "On Being Conservative" (1956), Oakeshott explained what he regarded as the conservative disposition: "To be conservative ... is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss."
Oakeshott's political philosophy, as advanced in On Human Conduct (1975), is removed any form of party politics. The book's first part ("On the Theoretical Understanding of Human Conduct") develops a theory of human action as the exercise of intelligent agency in activities such as wanting and choosing, the second ("On the Civil Condition") discusses the formal conditions of association appropriate to such intelligent agents, described as "civil" or legal association, and the third ("On the Character of a Modern European State") examines how far this understanding of human association has affected politics and political ideas in post-Renaissance European history.
Oakeshott suggests that there had been two major modes or understandings of human social organization. In the first, which he calls "enterprise association" (or universitas), the state is understood as imposing some universal purpose (profit, salvation, progress, racial domination) on its subjects. By contrast, "civil association" (or societas) is primarily a legal relationship in which laws impose obligatory conditions of action but do not require choosing one action rather than another.
The complex, often technical style of On Human Conduct found few readers, and its initial reception was mostly one of bafflement. Oakeshott, who rarely responded to critics, used an article in the journal Political Theory to reply sardonically to some of the contributions made at a symposium on the book.
After Retirement
In his retirement he retreated to live quietly in a country cottage in Langton Matravers in
Oakeshott refused an offer of being made a Companion of Honour, for which he was proposed by Margaret Thatcher.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Oakeshott
Afterword by the Blog Author
It seems very possible that Oakeshott turned down the status of being a Companion of Honour because he didn't want his distinctions seen as associated with any party of British politics.
Oakeshott's distinction between nomocratic organizations and teleocratic organizations may be profound and important. See tomorrow's (May 6th, 2015) blog entry for additional analysis of this distinction.
Afterword by the Blog Author
It seems very possible that Oakeshott turned down the status of being a Companion of Honour because he didn't want his distinctions seen as associated with any party of British politics.
Oakeshott's distinction between nomocratic organizations and teleocratic organizations may be profound and important. See tomorrow's (May 6th, 2015) blog entry for additional analysis of this distinction.
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