Oakeshott and the Genesis of Modern Rationalism

some considerations on section III of ‘Rationalism in Politics’

Abstract

The thinking of the British philosopher Michael Oakeshott is often recruited in the debate between conservatism and progressive positions, in which some of his distinctions and explications are used to criticize certain aspects of the latter. One of his main argumentative moves is to point out that fundamentally revolutionary political positions presuppose a certain conception of rationality, which in turn would be at odds with a classical view of the human intellectual faculty while privileging such a conception over other spheres of human experience. However, although common, such a reconstruction not only does not do justice to Oakeshott’s objectives and argumentation but also seems to ignore a more genuine understanding of rationalism in 17th and 18th centuries. Thus, the aim of this article is to explore Oakeshott’s argumentation as exposed in section III of his Rationalism in Politics in order to simultaneously specify his objectives and place them in perspective with the historical and thematic genesis of rationalism.