Foreign thinker
Michael Oakeshott
Michael OakeshottPolitical Philosophy and British IdealismBritish1901–1990
In political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place nor appointed destination. The enterprise is to keep afloat on an even keel.
Life and Thought
Michael Joseph Oakeshott (1901–1990) was a prominent British political philosopher and historian of ideas, and one of the most important theorists of modern conservatism in the twentieth century. He is best known for his critique of rationalism in politics, his emphasis on tradition and custom, and his conception of politics as a civil "conversation" rather than ideological planning. His political masterpiece is the book Rationalism in Politics.
Michael Joseph Oakeshott was born in 1901 in Chelsfield, England. He studied history and philosophy at the University of Cambridge and was influenced by British Idealism (especially the thought of Hegel and Bradley). His first major work, Experience and Its Modes, was published in 1933, in which he analyzed how humans understand the world through various forms such as history, science, and practice. For many years, he held the chair of political science at the London School of Economics (LSE), succeeding Harold Laski.
The core of Oakeshott's political philosophy is a modern critique of "Rationalism" in modernity. In his famous collection of essays, Rationalism in Politics (1962), he argued that rationalists believe politics can be conducted based on abstract plans, theories, and social engineering. For Oakeshott, this approach is destructive because it ignores "Practical Knowledge," which is the product of a society's tradition, lived experience, skill, and historical customs.
In his important later work, On Human Conduct, Oakeshott distinguishes between two types of political association: the "Enterprise Association" (or purpose-oriented association), in which the government directs citizens toward a common goal, and the "Civil Association" (or law-oriented association), in which the government merely provides a framework of general and fair laws so that individuals can pursue their own diverse ends. Oakeshott saw politics not as a tool for reaching utopia, but as the art of "navigating a boundless and bottomless sea."
