Michael Oakeshott on Authority, Governance, and the State

Michael Oakeshott on Authority, Governance, and the State presents contributions on one of the most important British philosophers of the 20th century. These essays address unique and under-analyzed areas in the literature on Oakeshott: authority, governance, and the state. They draw on some of the earliest and least-explored works of Oakeshott, including his lectures at Cambridge and the London School of Economics and difficult-to-access essays and manuscripts. The essays are authored by a diverse set of emerging and established scholars from Europe, North America, and India. This authorial diversity is not only a testimony to the growing international interest in Oakeshott, but also to a plurality of perspectives and important new insights into the thought of Michael Oakeshott.

1. Introduction. - 2. The State is the Attempt to Strip Metaphor out of Politics. - 3. The Problem of Liberal Political Legitimacy. - 4. Oakeshott on the State: Between History and Philosophy. - 5. Taking Natural Law Seriously within the Liberal Tradition. - 6. The Authority of the State and the Traditional Realm of Freedom. - 7. Anarchic and Antinomian? Oakeshott and the Cambridge School on History, Philosophy, and Authority. - 8. Michael Oakeshott' s Political Realism. - 9. Government as a British Conservative Understands It: Comments on Oakeshott s Views on Government. - 10. Global Governance and the Clandestine Revolution : From the Legal State to the Judicial State. - 11. Three Different Critiques of Rationalism: Friedrich Hayek, James Scott and Michael Oakeshott.