The conservative's dilemma: The case of Michael Oakeshott.

Abstract

The subject of the present thesis is the political thought of the 20th century British philosopher Michael Oakeshott. More precisely, we are interested with the relationship Oakeshott establishes and believes ought to exist between political theory and active politics. As we will show, because of his critique and opposition to what he terms Rationalism and Ideology, Oakeshott severely limits the definition and the role he attributes to political theory and the political theorist. Political theory and the role of the theorist are restricted to such an extent that when Oakeshott himself theorizes the state, we argue that he has tremendous difficulty respecting his own criteria. Therefore, we are interested in taking Oakeshott seriously, in order to see if he himself is able to respect the strict criteria he establishes regarding political theory when he goes about theorizing the state.