V. A Rationalist Malgré Lui : The Perplexities of Being Michael Oakeshott

Abstract

APART FROM HIS WORK AS AN INTERPRETER of Hobbes, Oakeshott's significance as a political philosopher prior to the publication of On Human Conduct ¹ may fairly be said to be encompassed in, and derive from, his essay “Political Education.”² To be sure, he has written a good deal before and after that essay, but the bulk of those writings—not least the papers collected in his Rationalism in Politics-are in one way or another glosses on the central theme articulated in that inaugural lecture.

That theme has both a philosophical and a doctrinal importance. At the philosophical level, it offers a serious challenge to conventional conceptions of political theory. At the doctrinal level, it sets forth an alternative to conventional conservatism—but not, as some American conservatives like to think, a compatible or complementary alternative.