Michael Oakeshott and Leo Strauss: The Politics of Renaissance and Enlightenment

Description

This book compares the thought of Michael Oakeshott and Leo Strauss, bringing Oakeshott’s desire for a renaissance of poetic individuality into dialogue with Strauss’s recovery of the universality of philosophical enlightenment. Starting from the conventional understanding of these thinkers as important voices of twentieth-century conservatism, McIlwain traces their deeper and more radical commitments to the highpoints of human achievement and their shared concerns with the fate of traditional inheritances in modernity, the role and meaning of history, the intention and meaning of political philosophy, and the problem of politics and religion. The book culminates in an articulation of the positions of Oakeshott and Strauss as part of the quarrel of poetry and philosophy, revealing the ongoing implications of their thinking in terms of the profound spiritual and political questions raised by modern thinkers such as Hobbes, Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger and leading back to foundational figures of Western civilization including St. Augustine and Socrates. Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction (David McIlwain)....Pages 1-13 Political Moderation and Practical Conservatism (David McIlwain)....Pages 15-39 Liberal Education and Classical Republicanism (David McIlwain)....Pages 41-63 Historical Interpretation and Philosophical Intention (David McIlwain)....Pages 65-85 The Philosophical Intention and Legacy of Hobbes (David McIlwain)....Pages 87-115 Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève on Tyranny and Theory (David McIlwain)....Pages 117-134 Michael Oakeshott and Alexandre Kojève on Play and Practice (David McIlwain)....Pages 135-152 Leo Strauss and Socratism After Nietzsche and Heidegger (David McIlwain)....Pages 153-175 Michael Oakeshott and Augustinianism After Hobbes and Hegel (David McIlwain)....Pages 177-198 Conclusion (David McIlwain)....Pages 199-208 Back Matter ....Pages 209-222