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Book No. – 3 (Political Science – Western Political Thought)
Book Name – Western Political Thought (OP Gauba)
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1. General Introduction
2. Nature of Politics
3. Scope of Freedom
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Michael Oakeshott
Chapter – 32
General Introduction
Michael (Joseph) Oakeshott (1901-90) was a distinguished English political philosopher.
Graduated from Cambridge University (1923) and appointed to the University Chair of Political Science at London School of Economics (1951-1968).
Known for his new interpretation and defence of conservatism informed by contemporary world experience.
His style of analysis is unique and original, marking a departure from conventional approaches.
His first major work, Experience and its Modes (1933), focuses on human experience, not directly on politics.
Oakeshott distinguishes three major modes of experience:
Practice: experience viewed under the aspect of will, focusing on self-contained individuals satisfying desires.
History: experience viewed under the aspect of the past.
Science: experience viewed under the aspect of quantity.
Philosophy is distinct from these modes as it is radical, self-conscious, and rigorously self-critical.
Other major political works include:
Introduction to Hobbes’s Leviathan (1946)
Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962)
On Human Conduct (1975)
On History and Other Essays (1983)
Oakeshott’s political thought focuses on the nature of politics, the scope of freedom, and defence of conservatism.