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Michael
Oakeshott (1901
- 1990)
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 The
Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism (Selected Writings of
Michael Oakeshott) by Michael
Oakeshott, Timothy Fuller (Editor)
One of Michael Oakeshott's essays is entitled
"The role of poetry in the conversation of mankind". This
posthumously published book is about the role of conversation in
politics. Or rather, about politics understood not as a crude exercise
of power or an instrumentally rationalistic pursuit of pre-given
interests, but as a conversation between two extremes or "ideal
types", i.e. "the politics of faith" and "the
politics of skepticism". On the one hand, these two extremes are
the only thing that can be KNOWN about European politics with certainty
that can aspire for the title of Science. The rest is left to judgment.
But this knowledge, in turn, is of a particular kind, since extremes
never (or rarely) reveal themselves in their pure form and can be again
only "imagined". "Imagined" for Oakeshott means
"experienced", not in a way empiricists fancy we experience
the world "out there", but reconstructed from the only raw
material that is available in the world of ideas - language. While
trying to grasp its ambiguity (that comes along with the ambivalence of
political action and human conduct in general), Oakeshott not only helps
to understand the complex phenomenon of European politics but makes his
reader to live through, as it were, revolutionary thrusts of "the
politics of faith" and maddening indecisiveness of "the
politics of skepticism"; thus making a point not for a fixed
"golden mean" between the two, but the "mean in
action", historically and culturally specific condition that can be
achieved only through moderation based in turn on a willingness to lay
down any claims for the possession of ultimate truth and therefore
ultimate knowledge with regards to the goal towards which a society
should be oriented. -- Anonymous Review
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An association devoted to the promotion and
critical discussion of the work of British philosopher Michael
Oakeshott (1901 - 1990)
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Michael Oakeshott, from First
Things
Excerpt:
Without pretending to be scientific about it, the
world may be imagined to be a vast collection of existences-things and
substances of various compositions and kinds-each of which is what it
is, and moves, changes, grows, or decays as it does by reason of its
relation to other things: things existing in various ways by, and in
some cases, at the expense of, or on, other things. This image is
sometimes called the Economy of Nature, and it is sometimes said to have
a "balance" or equilibrium of needs and satisfactions...
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Michael Oakeshott
Excerpt:
. . . A character in which this disposition is strong
may exhibit it in a masterful egoism almost as careless of the concerns
of some others as it is of their opinions, in a disdain for consequences
or recognition, in a compelling versatility of response, or in a
gracious or impatient intrusion into the affairs of the less well
endowed. But, of course, since what we are considering is intelligent
conduct, there is nothing whatever to identify this disposition with
self-gratification. Such a character may display it habitually or only
on important occasions, but he will always be a somewhat finicky chooser
insisting upon doing things his own way. In his capacity for taking the
initiative whilst others are laboriously marshalling their resources or
seeking supporters, and in his ability to take responsibility upon
himself and "to go about his business as if he had not a friend in
the world" (as Halifax portrays him), he may be recognized as a
useful character to have about the place. Possessing more than others he
can afford to lose more without becoming destitute. He is more likely to
perish in some quixotic adventure than to die in bed; but, either way,
he will have a death of his own as he has a life of his own...
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