Oakeshott's Claims of Politics

Abstract

Michael Oakeshott is most commonly thought of as a political philosopher. Thinking of his work in these terms can distract attention from his main arguments in which he outlines his conception of civil association. Civil association is a much broader idea than Oakeshott's idea of politics. But in refocusing attention away from politics and towards civil association it is important that we do not forget Oakeshott's positive account of politics. Politics, as Oakeshott understands it, is an activity which is indispensable to the practice of civil association. Politics considers civil rules, neither as authoritative conditions nor in the deliberative or injunctive idioms of adjudication or ruling, but in the persuasive idiom of their desirability. This paper explores the character of Oakeshott's conception of politics and the relation of this activity, both positive and negative, to the practice of civil association.