2014 APRIL |11-17 STATESMAN 42 |NEW This modest man:Oakeshott argued that thejobofpolitics was “to keep afloat onaneven keel” The conservative thinker whoThe went conservative beyond politics Not work, but always love always Michael Oakeshott: Notebooks (1922-86) Imprint Academic, 585pp, £50 Academic, Imprint Edited by Luke O’Sullivan Edited By Jesse Norman By BOOKS

had written: had alone. five since 2012 companion volumes and collections of essays, including studies, numerous of victim, the perhaps or subject, the been has He up. him taken have Yale and Cambridge ford, Ox of presses university great The racing. horse on co-authored he book the (1936), f i lcue ad racss wt the with of far) (so – exception broadcasts and lectures his of true is the same the and in publication, of is course or published been has wrote he everything Virtually studies”. “Oakeshott pupils and admirers. friends, between tic, unbidden exchange of reminiscences across the Atlan warm, a ensued There nomics. of government at the London School of Eco and a teacher highly effective chair generous of the a department Hobbes, of interpreter this century”, and of he was philosopher marked as political a brilliant academic original The Burke”. even or – Mill since tradition Saxon Anglo- the philosopherin political greatest The recognition. public lack not did Oakeshott the tent-mate same delivering them. discover and thought political European on lectures university’s the Cam attend to at bridge, arriving on embarrassment, his imagine hardly can One topics. other and philosophy history, politics, on views ing ing his new companion with his wide-rang favour in time no lost Worsthorne house, wonrecently Having scholarshipa Peter to unit. reconnaissance special Phantom the to recruit another with months six for tent a sharing himself foundTelegraph , Sunday the of editor future a Worsthorne, egrine Per young the WarWorld Second the ing ac all Dur men. of unassuming most the by counts, was, Michael for minded, have literature. inmedieval specialist and Oxford of vice-chancellor former ving) but for Walter Oakeshott, the (no less deser . . . produced duly was knighthood A cried. she title!” a Oakeshott man that give “Let’s possible. victory make helped had it, saw she as who, intellectuals conservative the celebrate to keen was Thatcher Mrs 1979 in hergoes story that election after apocryphal even towards the end of his life. The possibly copies. 1,000 Nor was its author well known Modes book, first his for years 30 took It indeed. people few recently,very Until Oakeshott? Michael reads now Who In There is now a rapidly burgeoning field of Michael 89, aged 1990, in death Yethis at will cousin distant his that unlikely is It Guardian him called “perhaps the most to begin atto the and beginning press to Philosophy, the inthought effort Daily Oakeshott Modes, Its and Experience (1933), to sell out its initial print run of

described him as “the as him described Telegraph A Guide to the Classics the to Guide A Experience and Its Its and Experience

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XXXX feel strangely liberating today, now that we we that nowtoday, liberating strangely feel fastidiousness and modesty that yet And prosperity. and homes jobs, for drive war post the with keeping of out quite and is, it aspiration fastidious and modest A keel.” even an on afloat keep to is enterprise The destination. appointed nor starting-place neither anchorage, for floor nor shelter for boundless a and bottomlessthere is sea; neither harbour sail men . . . activity political no place inpolitics. has by the craftsman time over up built knowledge inarticulable tacit, theimplication forits that is perience, and youthunderstanding exalt cal and inex politi denigrate to is note,view, might one ofThe this effect or plicit instructions. rules ex of set a to reduced be can governing of that as such activities skilled that belief the particular in them, underlying sumptions as the at but schemes and plans specific at not point: deepest the at aim takes hepher, philoso a As rocks. the on end to fated is or speed. reduce increase to levers civil-service yanking and guidance expert of the ship of thesteering state, vessel under deck theon officers as seen were politicians time, the of metaphor favoured a In ment. ning within and govern expertise technical on consensus thein favour postwar of plan attack philosophical elegant but vigorous a out set This (1962). Politics in Rationalism to him through the first of these collections, come readers his of Most history. and itics rather two and more years, accessible collections of onessays pol 40 some by rated sepa monographs, two slender: is long lifetime Oakeshott’s during published intellectual of work body the it, of face the On predicament. man and on and onlight the thought, hislife hu further cast and they And moving quotable. endlessly provocative, profound, are They said”. and thought been has that best “the in imbued was he deeply they how that: show than More years. 60 working some life, entire his for opinion” parasitic keep himself almost entirely of free “merely As these As To the contrary, Oakeshott suggests: “In “In suggests: Oakeshott contrary, the To Oakeshottenterprise showshowan such must be regarded withsuspicion. must beregarded thisfact whichanything tends obscure to absolutelystand upon itsown feet and philosophy, must at all, stand itisto if Fora thought been and said. has that or of the even best, all, be aware opinion weparasitic should that than withmerelyourselves unencumbered more we should that important keep anythan other study. And itisperhaps professionalism and itsimpedimenta lose to more stands theto by end, show, he managed to to show,Notebooksmanaged he ****

------from philosophy to history, as he recasts recasts he as history, to philosophy from moves book the Moreover, expression. of vo clarity utmostthe for search his in cabulary technical formidable a creating from away and shy not does Oakeshott and dense intricate, is style The essays. the of ness duct eie oe tm. h rsl ws Oake masterpiece, was late shott’s result The time. over refined behuman. to how we learn is It mankind”. of conversation “the called initiationan into adventure, whatan is It he knowledge. of simpletransfer a even or ers, technocratic process of creating future work a not is education then, him, For homines”. tive of and theculture civilisation, “life and voices, the interplay between them distinct as constitu as them see to came shott Oake indeed, society: within basis tional institu an develop they and consistency, internal their by marked are modes these But to be found and practice. within history categories are different very the with science confused of categories quantitative the we which encounter the world; it is whenwhat occurs through frameworks, ceptual con organising or “modes”, different into by divided as experience human analysis of Oakeshott deeper much a of expression inpractice. itisdisastrous as spurious intellectually as is identity, tional na or religion or science of claims through action human underwriting authority less supposition a for objectivity, for yearning “stand modern the follows that It feet”. own its on philosophy can this an of through awareness Only presuppositions. its to corban is experience human all that except absolutes, no has philosophy him for one: conditionalising a always is eye His Hegel. and Spinoza of tradition the in experience and activity human of aspects deepest the Hu mean scepticism with a desire a to interrogate joined who thinker, philosophical purely more a undoubtedly was Oakeshott But Oakeshott acknowledge. to prepared perhaps than was Burke Edmund to more rowly economic cultures. nar and materialistic highly our social of effects the with wrestle societies western while and state; the of those and power in limitations own their both acknowledge to forced are politicians as societies; to talitarian of excesses rationalistic the seen have He has only one subject, only one has He subject, u ti mdl nlss a rvsd and revised was analysis modal this But one thus is rationalism of idea very The owes vision this reflection, political As subject: andsubject: itisthe (1975). Gone is the seductive smooth seductive the is Gone (1975). human experience n ua Con Human On inter inter

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are all contraries reconciled.” are And, all no contraries reconciled.” less is our existence made intelligible. For in love mortal the of ourlove – material “In life are the worst.” deaths, lesser these . . . deaths as suffered & felt are they & deaths are all – friend a love, power, vitality, youth, lose “To relationship.” legal a not experience, al spiritu a is “Citizenship thought: arresting and pungentsome contains pages 500 than more its of one every Nearly wisdom. and worked wonders them book. to bring to has O’Sullivan, Luke editor, Their chaos”). “a as them described Oakeshott be? they could (how thought of line single a resembling remotely anything tion, and have not now been assembled into de . coeur They were not for written publica and purely mini-essays well personal as as writers, other from transcribed passages and quotations in reflections, These own his 1986. clude and 1922 Oake between by shott written journals of array vast a anantidote. itseems, Philosophy was, love. specifically and life, butwork not was reason Oakeshott to mattered what end the in that this for precisely is it Yet subversive way, enough. own its in is, This glory. and joy and pain its all in experience, man is it and subject, one only has He itself. past talks philosophy demic aca today’s of much so which choppingby andthe minutiose logic-and argumentative isms, for fashion modern the disdains and metaphor in delights who one age, another different. very,thing very shock theto turn corner and discover some it is a complex profoundedifice, intellectual this at wonder in gazed have who Tothose marmoreal. and massive so solid, so far, So ultimately,is, philosopher.a “conservative” Oakeshott that sense this in is It state. the of legitimacy basic the and freedom sonal per government, limited of ideas for modern grounding philosophical rigorous original a and in together strands two these History heas did in his its final work,own right, in modally conceived law, of rule the brace em to thought his extend to scope logical Oakeshott allows It purpose. or enterprise governing any by bound not equals of tion associa the as – association civil of idea the to depth new gives It ways. three least at in emergence of state. the European modern ambiguous the in idea that locates then and to explore the idea classical of association, civil understanding that uses hu practice, of man understanding an generalises and The result is of a apothegm,treasury ideas The present volumefrom been culled has We have seen Oakeshott as a thinker from profound philosophically is result The (1983). And it enables him to bring bring to him enables it And (1983). | NEW STATESMAN |NEW |43 2014 APRIL 11-17 **** – a written written a – Zibaldone ujc: hu subject: the cris cris On On - t ------t in character, “In pretty girls moral quali- ties are not so awfully relevant.” As these snippets hint, the Notebooks place Oakeshott in a European aphoristic tradi- tion ranging from Martial to La Rochefou- cauld and Nietzsche. They confirm his deep engagement with Plato and Aristotle, with personal heroes such as Spinoza, Cervantes, Montaigne and Pascal and with the novels of Tolstoy, Turgenev, James and Conrad, among many others. Again and again he returns to the themes of death and life, the enchantment and salvations of religion and poetry, and above all love. For the truth is that Oakeshott was not merely an Apollonian, but a Dionysian. He was married three times and had an ex- tensive but often unsuccessful and rackety love life. A man of enormous charm, bril- liant conversation and few pretensions, he admired and respected many women, yet had periods in which he behaved with great cruelty to those who loved and de- pended on him. Oakeshott rejected philosophy as a guide to human conduct

The Notebooks include a remarkable se- quence, dating from 1928-34, named af- ter “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by Keats, in which the thirtysomething Oakeshott veers from profound observations on love and loss to obsessional grumbling about his principal girlfriend, Céline (his diaries at- test to an interest then in at least nine fur- ther women), interspersed with melodra- matic screams of sexual frustration. He said of himself, “I am like the River Jordan, my course has ended in a Dead Sea.” And of his first wife, “To know is to lose.” In a man just married with a young child this is not pretty, to say the least. But it is compelling to read, and its counterpart – his supposed antidote to love – was Experi- ence and Its Modes, and the first formation of his philosophical world-view. Oakeshott rejected philosophy as a guide to human conduct and tried at times to compartmen- talise the two sides of his own character, the Apollonian and the Dionysian, but he never disavowed them. His ideal was al- ways that of the self-chosen life, the life lived in the full expression of one’s individ- uality. About that there could be no com- promise, whatever the consequences – for him or others. l Jesse Norman is the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire. His biography of Edmund Burke has just been longlisted for this year’s Orwell Prize

44 | NEW STATESMAN | 11-17 APRIL 2014