عنوان

The politics of faith and the politics of scepticism /

0300066252

0300105339

9780300066258

9780300105339

b759510

The politics of faith and the politics of scepticism /

[Book]

Michael Oakeshott ; edited by Timothy Fuller.

New Haven, Conn. :

Yale University Press,

1996.

xx, 139 pages ;

25 cm

Selected writings of Michael Oakeshott

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Michael Oakeshott, the foremost British political philosopher of the twentieth century, died in 1990, leaving a substantial collection of unpublished material. Yale University Press is continuing to make available the best of these illuminating works. In this polished and hitherto unknown work, Oakeshott argues that modern politics emerged out of a debate, persistent through centuries of European political experience up to the present, on the question, 'What should governments do?' According to Oakeshott, two different answers have dominated our thought since the fifteenth century. One, exemplified by such thinkers as Rousseau and Marx, expresses a belief in the capacity of human beings to control, design, and monitor all aspects of social and political life, a belief fostered by the intoxicating increase in power available to governments in modern times. On the other hand, sceptics such as Montaigne, Pascal, Halifax and Hume argued that governments cannot, in principle, produce perfection, and that we should prevent concentrations of power which may result in tyrannies which oppress the dignity of the human spirit. Oakeshott exposes the pitfalls of both positions and shows the value of a middle ground that incorporates scepticism with enough faith to avoid total quietism. Readers of Oakeshott will find here the thinking that lies behind his famous definition of politics as 'the pursuit of intimations'.

Political science-- Philosophy.

Political science.

Idées politiques.

Science politique-- Philosophie.

philosophie politique-- vingtieme siecle.

Political science-- Philosophy.

Political science.

Political science.

Politieke ideeën.

pouvoir politique.

s1sp

s2ph

Oakeshott, Michael,1901-1990.

Fuller, Timothy,1940-

20201204192127.0

[Book]

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