Abstract

The essay tries to answer one of the most controversial questions on Michael Oakeshott’s political philosophy: Was he a theorist of conservative or of liberalism à la Mises, Hayek etc.? The author's answer goes beyond the alternative, outlining the specific characteristics of the skeptical philosophy of the English thinker. It is a sustained attempt to move us away from asking the question in the ideological manner in which it is posed and so, in myriad ways, he turns our attention away from making familiar connections to religion, a set of doctrines, ideological programs, and hierarchy towards Oakeshott’s skepticism, deep historical sensibility, and prioritizing concrete practical experience and knowledge and the dispositional conservativism that flows from these.