Politics Of Skepticism Research Articles

The 2015 Israeli General Election: The Triumph of Jewish Skepticism, the Emergence of Arab Faith

The results of the 2015 Israeli election, primarily the sweeping victory of Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, surprised most analysts. In this article we employ political scientist Michael Oakeshott’s distinction in arguing that the campaign dynamics and the consequent electoral results reflect the triumph of a “politics of skepticism” among Jews, and the emergence of a “politics of faith” among Israel’s Arab-Palestinian citizens. Both derive from a combination of external and domestic circumstances and their effective exploitation by charismatic political leaders.

Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries eds. by John Christian Laursen and Gianni Paganini

Reviewed by: Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries eds. by John Christian Laursen and Gianni Paganini Peter S. Fosl John Christian Laursen and Gianni Paganini, editors. Skepticism and Political Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. Pp. vi + 292. Cloth, $75.00. Edited by two leading scholars of the history of early modern skepticism, this volume collects thirteen essays from a variety of North and South American as well as European authors. Following the groundbreaking work of Richard H. Popkin and others such as Richard A. Watson, José Maia Neto, and James Force, much has been made about skepticism in relation to early modern natural sciences and to religion. Curiously little, however, addresses skepticism and early modern politics. This volume works to fill that lacuna and takes another step along the path on which Laursen embarked in his The Politics of Skepticism (Brill, 1992) and in the cascade of publications following it. The volume adds complexity and scope, too, to Paganini’s remarkable work articulating the dynamics of skeptical controversy during the period, most recently in Skepsis (Vrin, 2008). About politics, this new volume brackets the question of whether skepticism yields any specific kind. Rather, the volume’s principal task is to exhibit how skepticism was and can be political at all. [End Page 682] The idea that skepticism, coherently conceived, cannot be political is an extension of the ancient charge of skeptical apraxia or inaction (e.g. Diogenes Laertius, Lives 9.11.62; Cicero, Academica 1.10.31). Since, the critics hold, action requires knowledge or at least dogmatic belief, and skeptics refuse them, action, including political action, is impossible for consistent skeptics. In the volume’s first essay, Emido Spinelli describes how Sextus Empiricus responds to this j’accuse by describing a practice of living “according to appearances” in a “fourfold” way by deferring to custom, heeding the passions, yielding to the guidance of nature, and employing the technical arts (24). The essays in this volume may be interpreted as political elaborations of that Pyrrhonian fourfold. Samuel Sorbière, in Sylvia Giocanti’s reading, follows Cato the Younger’s objection to Carneades in holding that skepticism is a subversive danger to the political order. More commonly, however, many have interpreted the skeptical appeal to custom and common life to imply a quietist or at least conservative posture. Michel de Montaigne, in particular, is read this way, as are variously Bernard Mandeville and David Hume. Spinelli, however, following out ideas he advanced in his edition of Against the Ethicists (Bibliopolis, 1995), argues convincingly to the contrary that an appeal to the non-philosophical teresin (observance) of common life and to a pre-theoretical prolepsis (preconception) related to it offers grounds for resistance to tyrannical political authority independent of dogmatic philosophical science (25; see Sextus, Adversus mathematicos 11.165–66). Sébastien Charles shows, in his essay on Brissot de Warville, how when the order of custom and tradition dissolves in revolutionary situations, not only resistance or reform but even skeptical revolutionary action may emerge. Skeptical yielding to natural passions centers Paganini’s essay, which holds that Thomas Hobbes’s political philosophy—and in particular in Hobbes’s political imperative to limit self-love and presumption or vainglory—was deeply influenced by his encounters with the French skeptics Montaigne and Pierre Charron. It is, of course, to sentiment and feeling—rather than to abstract principle or the divine—that Adam Smith, Hume, Mandeville, and even Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Voltaire appeal. Moreover, the characteristically skeptical leveling of distinctions between human and non-human animals marks a challenge to hierarchy per se, including the political dominion of some humans by others. That political theory itself may serve as a kind of skeptical technē is explored variously by Rui Bertrand Romão, Andrew Sabl, and Rodrigo Brandão in their fascinating essays on Mandeville, Hume, and Voltaire. Undermining claims to ultimate political and theological knowledge, these philosophers simultaneously undermine what the skeptics identify as toxic grounds for political faction and violence. Sabl understands Hume to have a “technological attitude towards politics” (163), which refuses claims to politics grounded in the divine...

On Michael Oakeshott: Scepticism and rationalism in politics

Although he is often included in the Pantheon of Conservative thinkers, Oakeshott has much to teach the modern left, says Andrew Gamble. He examines Oakeshott's politics of scepticism, whereby sustainable and well-adapted state institutions arise from experimentation and contingency rather than any grand political project.

Epistemologies of State, Epistemologies of Text. A review of Timothy Melley, The Covert Sphere : Secrecy, Fiction, and the National Security State

Epistemologies of State, Epistemologies of Text. A review of Timothy Melley, The Covert Sphere:Secrecy, Fiction, and the National Security State Aaron Colton (bio) Melley, Timothy. The Covert Sphere: Secrecy, Fiction, and the National Security State. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2012. Richard J. Hofstadter’s “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” (1952) provides the classic framework for any scholarly discussion of conspiracy and paranoia in the United States. In his essay, Hofstadter reminds us of the self-assured heroism implicit in the conspiratorial mindset—how the paranoiac understands conspiracy solely in “apocalyptic terms,” and how he “traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds … manning the barricades of civilization” (29-30). Scholarship on conspiracy is thus an exceptionally tone-sensitive genre. Write too modestly and the argument will fail to catch; write too strongly and you risk enacting the same paranoia you seek to gauge. Restraint can make for unconvincing prose, but even worse, discernibly paranoid criticism can end up, as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick has remarked, “blotting out any sense of the possibility of alternative ways of understanding or things to understand” (131). In The Covert Sphere: Secrecy, Fiction, and the National Security State (2012), Timothy Melley manages these demands deftly. The conspiracy theorist, as Hofstadter notes, aims toward the reduction of global systems into sinister, coherent plots managed by a handful of individuals “not caught in the toils of the vast mechanism of history” (32). Melley, however, is more interested in explicating discursive processes than in pinning major cultural and political developments on a few persons or sources; he defines “the covert sphere” as “a cultural imaginary shaped by both institutional secrecy and public fascination with the secret work of the state” (5). Melley contends that the US government’s efforts to silence or censor journalism after WWII implicitly authorized only select, speculative media—postmodern fiction, in large part—to probe the covert action of the state. This, however, would begin a vicious feedback loop. While writers such as Don DeLillo, Margaret Atwood, Robert Coover, Tim O’Brien, Joan Didion, and E.L Doctorow would deploy “postmodern epistemological skepticism” to critique state secrecy (10), so too would the Cold War US state erect comparable “epistemological barriers to knowing the work of the state” (105). By investing his prose in this intricate, two-way relationship between state and text—rather than proposing a model of cultural and social development engineered only from highest government offices—Melley effectively evades the self-aggrandizing, me-against-the-world stereotype of thinkers involved in conspiracy theories. Claims that could easily come off as conspiratorial—for instance, that “geopolitical melodramas” such as Fox’s 24 underlie the twenty-first century discourse on national security (219)—are rendered reasonable and compelling. Readers hardly suspect the author as paranoid himself. Melley’s text seamlessly weaves together decades of American studies scholarship on the Cold War and its sociological and aesthetic repercussions. In the context of current scholarship, one might think of The Covert Sphere as a companion to and even an expansion of Daniel Grausam’s On Endings: American Postmodern Fiction and the Cold War (2011), which investigates what exactly the fictional narrative can and cannot articulate in the context of mutually assured destruction. Comparatively, one can think of The Covert Sphere as an institutional parallel to Tobin Siebers’s Cold War Criticism and the Politics of Skepticism (1993), an analysis of the ways that theorists (as opposed to novelists) offer a cult of personality and power over knowledge in response to a world that could, at any given moment, erupt into nuclear warfare. Melley’s work follows another acclaimed historicization of fiction in the Cold War era, Mark McGurl’s The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing (2009), which chronicles the advent of American MFA programs in the mid- to late-twentieth century. While McGurl speaks mainly to the ways in which the Cold War allowed universities to both philosophically and financially seize on “the linked values of fictionality and creativity” and thus mark their investment in “vivacious American individualism” (McGurl 265), Melley sketches the overarching, epistemological structures that govern such transactions. Indeed, one of the most admirable features of Melley’s...

“Make Us Whole”: Environmental Justice and the Politics of Skepticism

Just after 6 p.m. on a mid-summer evening, I balanced on a small orange stool attached to a yellow Formica table, along with some 60 residents of Augusta, Georgia's Hyde Park neighborhood. As the d...

Against dialogue

This is a response to Woods and Gardner’s (2011) article which argues that geographers’ views on ‘policy research’ have been erroneously reduced to a ‘good’ / ‘bad’ dualism and that this has allowed ‘critical’ geographers to disengage from a dialogue about the potential that it offers for dialogue with policy makers. In this article I suggest that Woods and Gardner have put forward an argument that is based on a hermeneutics of trust which suggests that dialogue breeds ‘mutual understanding’ which, in turn, can provide a consensual basis for social progress. As such it considers the politics of cooperation but not the politics of scepticism and conflict in policy research. I argue that the experience of geographers shows that there are good reasons to be wary of policy research because it too often suppresses dissent and conflict. Thus a stand of hostility towards policy research is entirely legitimate but, more importantly, necessary in the interests of fostering a democratic debate in which conflict is brought out into the open.

Terrorology and Methodology: A Reply to Dixit and Stump

We did not volunteer to review the first issue of Critical Studies on Terrorism. It was the editor of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism who, in the spirit of encouraging properly critical debate, i...

‘THE POLITICS OF FAITH AND THE POLITICS OF SCEPTICISM’: MICHAEL OAKESHOTT, EDUCATION AND EXTREMISM

ABSTRACT This paper considers a distinction between two types of politics developed by Michael Oakeshott in his book The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism (1996) and argues that the theoretical framework proposed supplies an illuminating and productive perspective for examining the notion of political extremism. These positions are linked to two other important aspects of his work, namely his account of ‘enterprise’ and ‘civil’ association and his differentiation between abstract philosophical entities and concrete political situations. There is also a discussion of the idea of ‘perfectionism’ which is central to the politics of faith. The paper concludes with a consideration of some of the implications for political education arising from this analysis.

Populism as a Spectre of Democracy: A Response to Canovan

The literature on populism used to depict the phenomenon as an alternative to the standard path from traditional to modern society; as a way to enfranchise the underclass; or as an anomaly visà-vis class politics and liberal institutions. More recently, the debate has shifted into something of a terra incognita as a result of the growing interest in the connection between populism and democratic politics. One of the more intriguing contributions to this debate is an article by Margaret Canovan, if only because it makes this unknown territory less confusing. Her argument draws from Michael Oakeshott's claim that political modernity is characterised by the interplay of two distinct styles – the politics of faith and the politics of scepticism. She renames them the redemptive and pragmatic faces of democracy and suggests that populism arises in the gap between them. This establishes a relation of interiority between populism and democracy. The former will follow democracy like a shadow. At times, however, the theoretical status of the gap is somewhat uncertain, as it seems more appropriate for thinking politics (particularly radical politics) in general. The political valence of the shadow could also be specified further to show the undecidability between the democratic aspect of the phenomenon and its possible ominous tones. This paper looks into this in some detail to engage in a friendly interrogation of Canovan's claims.

A 'conversation' concerning political understanding: Bacon contra Augustine or the 'politics of faith' contra the 'politics of scepticism'

There are many different interpretations and understandings as to the role and purpose of politics and the activity of governing within a society and among humanity in general. The noted British philosopher, Michael Oakeshott, argues that these various understandings all represent a conversation between two different styles of politics, namely, the 'politics of faith' which places an absolute trust in human reason and sees government as the agent that will lead society on a road to perfection; and the 'politics of scepticism' which detaches politics and the activity of governing from the quest for human perfection. This article analyses these two styles of politics as reflected in the work of some of its earliest and most influential proponents, namely Francis Bacon and St Augustine. This analysis seeks to identify the core elements of the 'conversation' between these opposing styles of politics in order to gain a better insight into the contested nature of our contemporary understanding of the political.

Montaigne, Tocqueville, and the Politics of Skepticism

Montaigne, Tocqueville, and the Politics of Skepticism

The Politics Of Faith and the Politics Of Scepticism

The Politics Of Faith and the Politics Of Scepticism

The subject and other subjects: on ethical, aesthetic, and political identity

Subject and Other Subjects theorizes the differences among ethical, aesthetic, and political conceptions of identity. When a person is called beautiful, why does it strike us as an objectification? Is a person whom we consider to be an exemplary person still a person, and not an example? Can one person conceive what it means to have the perspective of a community? This study treats these thorny issues in the context of recent debates in cultural studies, feminism, literary criticism, narrative theory, and moral philosophy concerning the nature and directions of multiculturalism, post-modernity, and sexual politics.Tobin Siebers raises a series of questions that cross the wires among ethical, aesthetic, and political definitions of the self, at once exposing our basic assumptions about these definitions and beginning the work of reconceiving them. Subject and Other Subjects will broaden our ideas about the strange interplay between subjects and objects (and other subjects!) that characterizes modern identity, and so provoke lively debate among anthropologists, art historians, literary theorists, philosophers, and others concerned with how the question of the subject becomes entangled with ethics, aesthetics, and politics. As Siebers argues, the subject is in fact a tangled network of subjectivities, a matrix of identities inconceivable outside of symbols and stories.Tobin Siebers is Professor of English at the University of Michigan, and author of Cold War Criticism and the Politics of Skepticism; Morals and Stories; The Ethics of Criticism; The Romantic Fantastic; and Mirror of Medusa.

Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy

Populism, understood as an appeal to ‘the people’ against both the established structure of power and the dominant ideas and values, should not be dismissed as a pathological form of politics of no interest to the political theorist, for its democratic pretensions raise important issues. Adapting Michael Oakeshott's distinction between ‘the politics of faith’ and ‘the politics of scepticism’, the paper offers an analysis of democracy in terms of two opposing faces, one ‘pragmatic’ and the other ‘redemptive’, and argues that it is the inescapable tension between them that makes populism a perennial possibility.

Book Reviews

Campbell, Colin and Wilson, Graham K., The End of Whitehall: Death of a Paradigm?Rohr, John A., Founding Republics in France and America: A Study in Constitutional GovernanceWeller, Patrick and Davis, Glyn (eds.), New Ideas, Better GovernmentGoodin, R.E. (ed.), The Theory of Institutional DesignOakeshott, Michael, The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Skepticism

The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism. By Michael Oakeshott. Edited by Timothy Fuller. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996. 192p. $25.00.

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The politics of faith and the politics of scepticism

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. 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

:The Politics of Skepticism in the Ancients: Montaigne, Hume, and Kant

:<i>The Politics of Skepticism in the Ancients: Montaigne, Hume, and Kant</i>

Oakeshott's Theory of Civil AssociationReligion, Politics, and the Moral Life.Michael Oakeshott , Timothy FullerMorality and Politics in Modern Europe: The Harvard Lectures.Shirley Robin Letwin

Previous articleNext article No AccessReview EssayOakeshott's Theory of Civil Association Michael Oakeshott , Timothy Fuller Religion, Politics, and the Moral Life. Michael Oakeshott , Timothy Fuller Morality and Politics in Modern Europe: The Harvard Lectures. Shirley Robin Letwin Bhikhu ParekhBhikhu Parekh Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Ethics Volume 106, Number 1Oct., 1995 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/293783 Views: 7Total views on this site Citations: 6Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1995 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Joshua Broady Preiss Multiculturalism and Equal Human Dignity: An Essay on Bhikhu Parekh, Res Publica 17, no.22 (Mar 2011): 141–156.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-011-9148-0Jacob Segal Virtue and normalization: Oakeshott, Galston and the problem of a liberal personality, Contemporary Political Theory 10, no.22 (Apr 2011): 190–209.https://doi.org/10.1057/cpt.2009.39Ian Frowe ‘THE POLITICS OF FAITH AND THE POLITICS OF SCEPTICISM’: MICHAEL OAKESHOTT, EDUCATION AND EXTREMISM, British Journal of Educational Studies 55, no.33 (Jul 2010): 264–285.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8527.2007.00379.xLucas Swaine Political Theory and the Conduct of Faith: Oakeshott on Religion in Public Life, Contemporary Political Theory 4, no.11 (Feb 2005): 63–82.https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.cpt.9300123Richard Boyd Michael Oakeshott on Civility, Civil Society and Civil Association, Political Studies 52, no.33 (Jun 2016): 603–622.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2004.00498.xIseult Honohan Friends, Strangers or Countrymen? The Ties between Citizens as Colleagues, Political Studies 49, no.11 (Nov 2016): 51–69.https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.00302

The Politics of Scepticism in the Ancients, Montaigne, Hume and Kant

The Politics of Scepticism in the Ancients, Montaigne, Hume and Kant