When it first appeared in 1933, Experience and its Modes was not considered a classic. But as philosophical fashion moved away from the analytic philosophy of the 1930s, this work began to seem ahead of its time. Arguing that experience is 'modal', in the sense that we always have a theoretical or practical perspective on the world, Michael Oakeshott explores the nature of philosophical experience and its relationship to three of the most important 'modes' of non-philosophical experience - science, history and practice - seeking to establish the autonomy and superiority of philosophy. In recognition of its enduring importance, this book is presented in a fresh series livery for a new generation of readers, featuring a specially commissioned preface written by Paul Franco.

"The Vocabulary of a Modern European State" is the companion volume to "The Concept of a Philosophical Jurisprudence" and completes the enterprise of gathering together Oakeshott's previously scattered essays and reviews. As with all the other volumes in the series it contains an entirely new editorial introduction explaining how the writings it contains find their place in his work as a whole. It covers the years 1952 to 1988, the period during which Oakeshott wrote his definitive work, "On Human Conduct". The essay from which the volume takes its title was intended as a companion piece to the third part of the latter work, and is just one of over sixty pieces that it includes. The volume draws together critical responses to works by major philosophers, historians, and political theorists of his own generation such as Bertrand de Jouvenel, Herbert Marcuse, and Michael Polanyi as well as to some major figures of current scholarship such as Quentin Skinner and Roger Scruton.

Of Michael Oakeshott and his interest in Thomas Hobbes, Professor Paul Franco has written, "The themes Oakeshott stresses in his interpretation of Hobbes are . . . skepticism about the role of reason in politics, allegiance to the morality of individuality as opposed to any sort of collectivism, and the principle of a noninstrumental, nonpurposive mode of political association, namely, civil association." Of Hobbes's Leviathan, Oakeshott has written, ""Leviathan" is the greatest, perhaps the sole, masterpiece of political philosophy written in the English language." "Hobbes on Civil Association" consists of Oakeshott's four principal essays on Hobbes and on the nature of civil association as civil association pertains to ordered liberty. The essays are "Introduction to "Leviathan"" (1946); "The Moral Life in the Writings of Thomas Hobbes" (1960); "Dr. Leo Strauss on Hobbes" (1937); and, ""Leviathan" A Myth" (1947). The foreword remarks the place of these essays within Oakeshott's entire corpus.Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990) was Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics and the author of many essays, among them those collected in "Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays" and "On History and Other Essays, " both now published by Liberty Fund.Paul Franco is a Professor in the Department of Government at Bowdoin College.

When it first appeared in 1933, Experience and its Modes was not considered a classic. But as philosophical fashion moved away from the analytic philosophy of the 1930s, this work began to seem ahead of its time. Arguing that experience is 'modal', in the sense that we always have a theoretical or practical perspective on the world, Michael Oakeshott explores the nature of philosophical experience and its relationship to three of the most important 'modes' of non-philosophical experience - science, history and practice - seeking to establish the autonomy and superiority of philosophy. In recognition of its enduring importance, this book is presented in a fresh series livery for a new generation of readers, featuring a specially commissioned preface written by Paul Franco.

"Rationalism in Politics, " first published in 1962, has established the late Michael Oakeshott as the leading conservative political theorist in modern Britain. This expanded collection of essays astutely points out the limits of "reason" in rationalist politics.Oakeshott criticizes ideological schemes to reform society according to supposedly "scientific" or rationalistic principles that ignore the wealth and variety of human experience. "Rationalism in politics," says Oakeshott, "involves a misconception with regard to the nature of human knowledge." History has shown that it produces unexpected, often disastrous results. "Having cut himself off from the traditional knowledge of his society, and denied the value of any education more extensive than a training in a technique of analysis," the Rationalist succeeds only in undermining the institutions that hold civilized society together. In this regard, rationalism in politics is "a corruption of the mind."Timothy Fuller is Professor of Political Science and Dean of the College at Colorado College.

A highly readable new collection of almost thirty pieces by Michael Oakeshott, almost all of which are previously unpublished, covering every decade of his intellectual career. The essays were intended mostly for lectures or seminars and retain an informal style that makes them accessible to new readers as well as those already familiar with Oakeshott's work. The book will be indispensable for all Oakeshott's readers, no matter which area of his thought concerns them most.

"Rationalism in Politics, " first published in 1962, has established the late Michael Oakeshott as the leading conservative political theorist in modern Britain. This expanded collection of essays astutely points out the limits of "reason" in rationalist politics.Oakeshott criticizes ideological schemes to reform society according to supposedly "scientific" or rationalistic principles that ignore the wealth and variety of human experience. "Rationalism in politics," says Oakeshott, "involves a misconception with regard to the nature of human knowledge." History has shown that it produces unexpected, often disastrous results. "Having cut himself off from the traditional knowledge of his society, and denied the value of any education more extensive than a training in a technique of analysis," the Rationalist succeeds only in undermining the institutions that hold civilized society together. In this regard, rationalism in politics is "a corruption of the mind."Timothy Fuller is Professor of Political Science and Dean of the College at Colorado College.

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 Oakshott'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.'

Oakeshott's memorable lectures on the history of political thought, delivered each year at the London School of Economics, are now available in print for the first time as Volume II of his "Selected Writings". Based on manuscripts in the LSE archive for 1966-67, the last year of Oakeshott's tenure as Professor of Political Science, these thirty lectures deal with Greek, Roman, mediaeval, and modern European political thought in a uniquely accessible manner. Scholars familiar with Oakeshott's work will recognize his own ideas subtly blended with an exposition carefully crafted for an undergraduate audience; those discovering Oakeshott for the first time will find an account of the subject that remains illuminating and provocative.

Michael Oakeshott's lifelong interest in religion and its relation to politics is made explicit in this collection of essays. It comprises four important unpublished pieces, together with a further six which originally appeared in remote and inaccessible journals, and provides an illuminating complement to Oakeshott's best-known writings. Much of the collection emanates from his early career, and reveals not only his initial intellectual preoccupations, but the nature of his religious outlook, the moral convictions that governed the life he himself lived, and his sense of what it means to live 'religiously' in the world. What the essays disclose is a view of a moral life without fixities, but with choices of conduct in accord with one's self-understanding. Faith lies not in resisting but exploring life's contingencies, seeking an imaginative response to the events that come one's way. Oakeshott's writing is persuasive and compelling, and the essays offer a calm and civil dissent from the dominant rationalism of our time. In a substantial introduction, Timothy Fuller provides the first full explanation of Oakeshott's religious ideas, setting them within their philosophic context.He shows how, in these essays, Oakeshott elaborated the implications of 'Experience and its Modes', worked out his political theory as summarized in 'Rationalism in Politics', and gradually assembled his own philosophical account of the ideal that European civilization had made concrete in history - civil association under the rule of law - and to which he gave definitive expression in 'On Human Conduct'. Michael Oakeshott was born in 1901 and educated at the Universities of Cambridge, Tubingen and Marburg. A fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, he was appointed to the chair of Political Science at the London School of Economics in 1950. He died in 1990. His publications include 'Experience and its Modes' (1933), and edition of Hobbes's 'Leviathan' (1946), 'Rationalism in Politics' (1962), 'On Human Conduct' (1975) and 'The Voice of Liberal Learning' (1989). Timothy Fuller was Dean of the College, Colorado College, and editor of 'The Voice of Liberal Learning: Michael Oakeshott on Education'.

This volume contains two previously unpublished works, a manuscript entitled 'A discussion of some matters preliminary to the study of political philosophy', and the first version of a course of lectures on 'The philosophical approach to politics' that Oakeshott gave between 1928 and 1930.

In this carefully reasoned work, discovered after Michael Oakeshott's death in 1990 and here published for the first time, the preeminent political philosopher describes the fundamental dichotomy that has divided discussion of the role of government in Europe since the Renaissance. Oakeshott exposes the weaknesses of each opposing position and proposes a middle ground, incorporating some scepticism and some faith. By general consensus, Oakeshott is the most striking and original British political thinker of the century...Anyone interested in the nature of politics and government will find this book of interest, and many will want to direct their senior students to it as an accessible introduction to Oakeshott's thought.-William Christian, University of Guelph, Perspectives on Political Science The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism is concerned to trace the deepest and most permanent features of the modern European political landscape over the last five hundred years, and this it does in an original, insightful, and frequently eloquent manner. We are fortunate that the book has finally seen the light of day.-Paul Franco, Bowdoin College, Political Theory We are grateful to the editor Tim Fuller for making available this little gem that combines philosophical insight and historical investigation in the exposure of the two 'styles' of modern European politics, without the elaborate prose to which Oakeshott has accustomed his readers: the absence of the typical flamboyant style that characterizes Oakeshott's published works, enables us to grasp his line of thought in the making and renders his arguments crystal clear...A sublime mememto.-Giovanni Giorgini, Political Studies

From the 1920s to the 1980s Oakeshott filled dozens of notebooks with his private reflections, both personal and intellectual. Their contents range from aphorisms to miniature essays, forming a unique record of his intellectual trajectory over his entire career. This volume makes them accessible in print for the first time, drawing together a host of his previously inaccessible observations on politics, philosophy, art, education, and much else besides. Religion in particular emerges as an ongoing concern for him in a way that is not visible from his published works.

The notebooks also provide a unique source of insight into Oakeshott's musings on life, thanks to the hitherto unsuspected existence of the series of 'Belle Dame notebooks that were written in the late 1920s and early 1930s but which only came to light two decades after his death. At the same period in which he was developing the concepts that would form Experience and its Modes, Oakeshott s personal life lead him to reflect extensively on love and death, themes that highlight his enduring romantic affinities.

Accompanied by an original editorial introduction, the volume allows readers to see for themselves exactly which works Oakeshott used in compiling each of his notebooks, providing a much clearer record of his intellectual influences than has previously been available. It will be an essential addition to the library of his works for all those interested in his ideas."

This volume brings together for the first time over a hundred of Oakeshott's essays and reviews, written between 1926 and 1951, that until now have remained scattered through a variety of scholarly journals, periodicals and newspapers. There is a new editorial introduction that explains how these pieces, including the lengthy essay on the philosophical nature of jurisprudence that occupies an important position in Oakeshott's work, illuminate his other published writings. The collection throws new light on the context of his thought by placing him in dialogue with a number of other major figures in the humanities and social sciences during this period, including Leo Strauss, A.N. Whitehead, Karl Mannheim, Herbert Butterfield, E.H. Carr, Gilbert Ryle, and R.G. Collingwood.