Michael Joseph Oakeshott (11 December 1901 – 19 December 1990) was an English philosopher. He is known for his contributions to the philosophies of

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

.Fuller, T. (1991) 'The Work of Michael Oakeshott', ''Political Theory'', Vol. 19 No. 3.

Early life and education

Oakeshott was born in Chelsfield, London, on 11 December 1901, the son of Joseph Francis Oakeshott, a civil servant with the Inland Revenue,Paul Franco, Leslie Marsh, ''A Companion to Michael Oakeshott'', pp. 16 and member of the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society () is a History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom, British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in ...

, and Frances Maude, daughter of George Thistle Hellicar, a well-off

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

silk-merchant. His sister Violet married economist and social reformer Gilbert Slater. His uncle Harold's first wife was women's rights activist Grace Oakeshott, though there is no evidence that Michael knew her. He attended St George's School, Harpenden, a new co-educational and 'progressive' boarding school from 1912 to 1920. He enjoyed his schooldays, and the Headmaster, the Rev. Cecil Grant, a disciple of Maria Montessori, later became a friend. In 1920, Oakeshott matriculated with a Scholarship at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

, where he read history, taking the Political Science options in both parts of the

Tripos TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...

, the University of Cambridge's degree examinations. He graduated in 1923 with a first-class degree, subsequently promoted to MA (Cantab), and was elected a Fellow of Caius in 1925. As a University of Cambridge student, he admired the British idealist philosophers J. M. E. McTaggart and John Grote, and the medieval historian Zachary Nugent Brooke. He said that McTaggart's introductory lectures were the only formal philosophical training he ever received. The historian Herbert Butterfield was a contemporary, friend and fellow member of the Junior Historians society. After graduation in 1923, Oakeshott pursued

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

and

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

in a summer course at the universities of Marburg and

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

, and again in 1925. In between, he taught literature for a year as Senior English Master at King Edward VII Grammar School, Lytham, while simultaneously writing his fellowship dissertation, which he said was a 'dry run' for his first book, ''Experience and its Modes''.

Career

Oakeshott was dismayed by the political extremism that occurred in Europe during the 1930s, and his surviving lectures from this period reveal a dislike of

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

and

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

. He is said to have been the first at Cambridge to lecture on

Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. At the suggestion of Sir Ernest Barker, who sought to see Oakeshott succeed to his own chair of political science at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, he produced an anthology, with commentary, ''The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe'', published in 1939. For all its muddle and incoherence, as Oakeshott saw it, he found

representative democracy Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies func ...

the least unsatisfactory, in part because "the imposition of a universal plan of life on a society is at once stupid and immoral."

Second World War

Oakeshott joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

in 1940, before being conscripted under the National Service Act. He volunteered for the virtually suicidal

Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...

(SOE), where the average life expectancy was about six weeks, and was interviewed by Hugh Trevor-Roper, who felt that he was "too unmistakably English" to conduct covert operations on the Continent. Oakeshott saw active service in Europe with the battlefield intelligence unit Phantom, a semi-freelance quasi-Signals organisation which also had connections with the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...

(SAS). Though always at the front, the unit was seldom directly involved in any actual fighting. Oakeshott's military competence did not go unnoticed, and he ended the war as Adjutant of Phantom's 'B' Squadron and an acting

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

Postwar

In 1945, Oakeshott was demobilised and returned to the

. In 1949, he left Cambridge for Nuffield College, Oxford, but after only two years, in 1951, he was appointed Professor of Political Science at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

(LSE), succeeding the leftist Harold Laski, an appointment noted by the popular press. Oakeshott was deeply unsympathetic to the student activism at LSE during the late 1960s, and highly critical of what he saw as the authorities' insufficiently robust response. He retired from the LSE in 1969, but continued teaching and conducting seminars until 1980. In his retirement, he retreated to live quietly in a country cottage in Langton Matravers in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

with his third wife. He was twice divorced and had numerous affairs, many of them with wives of his students, colleagues and friends, and even with his son Simon's girlfriend. He also had a son out of wedlock, whom he abandoned together with the mother when the child was two, and whom he did not meet again for nearly twenty years. Oakeshott's most famous lover was Iris Murdoch. Oakeshott lived long enough to experience increasing recognition, although he has become much more widely written about since his death. Oakeshott declined an offer to be made a Companion of Honour, for which he was proposed by

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

Philosophy

Early works

Oakeshott's early work, some of which has been published posthumously as ''What is History? and Other Essays'' (2004) and ''The Concept of a Philosophical Jurisprudence'' (2007), shows that he was more interested in the philosophical problems that derived from his historical studies than he was in the history, even though he was officially a historian. Some of his very early essays are on religion (of a Christian 'modernist' kind), though after his first marital break-up () he published no more on the topic except for a couple of pages in his ''magnum opus'', titled ''On Human Conduct''. However, his posthumously published and voluminous ''Notebooks'' (1919-) show a lifelong preoccupation with religion and questions of mortality. In his youth he had considered taking Holy Orders, but later inclined towards a non-specific Romantic mysticism.

Philosophy and modes of experience

Oakeshott published his first book in 1933, ''Experience and its Modes'', when he was thirty-one. He acknowledged the influence of

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and t ...

and F. H. Bradley; commentators also noticed resemblances between this work and the ideas of thinkers such as R. G. Collingwood and

Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach ...

. The book argued that our experience is usually modal, in the sense that we almost always have a governing perspective on the world, be it practical or theoretical. One may take various theoretical approaches to the world:

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

, history and practice, for example, are quite separate, immiscible modes of experience. It is a mistake, he declared, to treat history on the model of the sciences, or to read into it one's current practical concerns. Philosophy, however, is not a mode. At this stage of his career Oakeshott understood philosophy as the world seen, in Spinoza's phrase, ', literally "under the aspect of eternity", free from presuppositions, whereas science and history and the practical mode rely on certain assumptions. Later (there is disagreement about exactly when) Oakeshott adopted a pluralistic view of the various modes of experience, with philosophy just one voice among others, though it retained its self-critical character. According to Oakeshott, the dominating principles of scientific and historical thought are quantity (the world ') and pastness (the world ') respectively. Oakeshott distinguished the academic perspective on the past from the practical, in which the past is seen in terms of its relevance to our present and future. His insistence on the autonomy of history places him close to Collingwood, who also argued for the autonomy of historical knowledge. The practical world view (the world ') presupposes the ideas of will and value. It is only in terms of these that practical action, for example in politics, economics, and ethics, makes sense. Because all action is conditioned by presuppositions, Oakeshott saw any attempt to change the world as reliant upon a scale of values, which themselves presuppose a context in which ''this'' is preferable to ''that''. Even the conservative disposition to maintain the ''status quo'' (so long as the latter is tolerable) relies upon managing inevitable change, a point he later elaborated in his essay "On Being Conservative".

Post-war essays

During this period, Oakeshott published what became his best known work during his lifetime, the collection entitled ''Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays'' (1962), and notable for its elegance of style. Some of his near-polemics against the direction that Britain was taking, in particular towards

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, gained Oakeshott a reputation as a traditionalist conservative, sceptical about

rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...

and rigid

ideologies An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

. Bernard Crick described him as a "lonely nihilist". Oakeshott's opposition to political utopianism is summed up in his analogy (possibly borrowed from a pamphlet by the 17th-century statesman George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, ''The Character of a Trimmer'') of a ship of state that has "neither starting-place nor appointed destination... nd wherethe enterprise is to keep afloat on an even keel". He was a severe critic of E. H. Carr, the Cambridge historian of Soviet Russia, claiming that Carr was fatally uncritical of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

regime and took some of its propaganda at face value.

''On Human Conduct'' and Oakeshott's political theory

In his essay "On Being Conservative" (1956) Oakeshott characterised conservatism as a disposition rather than a political stance: "To be conservative ... is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss." Oakeshott's political philosophy, as advanced in ''On Human Conduct'' (1975), is free of any recognisable party politics. The book's first part ("On the Theoretical Understanding of Human Conduct") develops a

theory A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...

of human action as the exercise of intelligent agency in activities such as wanting and choosing, the second ("On the Civil Condition") discusses the formal conditions of association appropriate to such intelligent agents, described as "civil" or legal association, and the third ("On the Character of a Modern European State") examines how far this understanding of human association has affected politics and political ideas in post-Renaissance European history. Oakeshott suggests that there had been two major modes or understandings of political organization. In the first, which he calls "enterprise association" (or '), the state is (illegitimately) understood as imposing some universal purpose (

profit Profit may refer to: Business and law * Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market * Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit * Profit (real property), a nonpossessory inter ...

salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

, progress, racial domination) on its subjects. (As its name indicates, enterprise association is perfectly appropriate to the management of ''enterprises''; however, except in emergencies such as war, where all resources must be commandeered into the pursuit of victory, the state is not an enterprise, properly so called.) By contrast, "civil association" (or ') is primarily a legal relationship in which laws impose obligatory conditions of action but do not require the associates to choose one action rather than another. (Compare

Robert Nozick Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino Harvard University Professor, University Professorship at Harvard University,adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...

to describe the kind of restraint that law involves. Laws prescribe "adverbial conditions": they condition our actions, but they do not determine their substantive chosen ends. For example, the law against murder is not a law against killing as such, but only a law against killing "murderously". Or, to choose a more trivial example, the law does not dictate that I have a car, but if I do, I must drive it on the same side of the road as everybody else. This contrasts with the rules of enterprise associations, in which the actions required by the management are made compulsory for all.

Philosophy of history

In the final work that Oakeshott published in his lifetime, ''On History'' (1983), he returned to the idea that history is a distinct mode of experience, but this time building on the theory of action developed in ''On Human Conduct''. Much of ''On History'' had emerged from Oakeshott's post-retirement graduate seminars at LSE, and had been written at the same time as ''On Human Conduct'', in the early 1970s. During the mid-1960s Oakeshott declared an admiration for Wilhelm Dilthey, one of the pioneers of

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication. ...

. ''On History'' can be interpreted as an essentially neo-Kantian enterprise of working out the conditions of the possibility of historical knowledge, work that Dilthey had begun. The first three essays set out the distinction between the present of historical experience and the present of practical experience, as well as the concepts of historical situation, historical event, and what is meant by change in history. ''On History'' includes an essay on

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

("The Rule of Law"). It also includes a retelling of '' The Tower of Babel'' in a modern settingReprinted as in which Oakeshott expresses disdain for human willingness to sacrifice individuality, culture, and quality of life for grand collective projects. He attributes this behaviour to fascination with novelty, persistent dissatisfaction, greed, and lack of self-reflection.

Other works

Oakeshott's other works included a reader, already mentioned, on ''The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe''. It consisted of selected texts illustrating the main doctrines of

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

, national socialism,

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

, and

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

(1939). He edited

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan (Hobbes book), Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered t ...

's ''

Leviathan Leviathan ( ; ; ) is a sea serpent demon noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, and the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. Leviathan is of ...

'' (1946), with an introduction that has been recognised as a significant contribution to the literature by some later scholars. Several of Oakeshott's writings on Hobbes were collected and published in 1975 as ''Hobbes on Civil Association''. With his Cambridge colleague Guy Thompson Griffith, Oakeshott wrote ''A Guide to the Classics, or How to Pick The Derby Winner'' (1936), a guide to the principles of successful betting on horse-racing. This was his only published non-academic work. Oakeshott was the author of well over 150 essays and reviews, most of which have now been republished. Just before he died Oakeshott approved two edited collections of his works, ''The Voice of Liberal Learning'' (1989), a collection of his essays on education, and a second, revised and expanded edition of ''Rationalism in Politics'' (1991). Posthumous collections of his writings include ''Morality and Politics in Modern Europe'' (1993), a lecture series he gave at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in 1958; ''Religion, Politics, and the Moral Life'' (1993), essays mostly from his early and middle periods; and ''The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism'' (1996), an already-mentioned manuscript from the 1950s contemporary with much of ''Rationalism in Politics'' but written in a more considered tone. The bulk of his papers are now in the Oakeshott Archive at the

. Further volumes of posthumous writings are in preparation, as is a biography, and a series of monographs devoted to his work were published during the first decade of the 21st century, and continue to be produced.

Bibliography

* 1933. ''Experience and Its Modes''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

* 1936. ''A Guide to the Classics, or, How to Pick the Derby Winner''. With G.T. Griffith. London: Faber and Faber * 1939. ''The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press * 1941. ''The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe'', 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press * 1942. ''The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe'' with five additional prefaces by F.A. Ogg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press * 1947. ''A New Guide to the Derby: How to Pick the Winner''. With G.T. Griffith. London: Faber and Faber * 1955. ''La Idea de Gobierno en la Europa Moderna''. Madrid: Ateneo * 1959. ''The voice of poetry in the conversation of mankind: an essay''. Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes * 1962. ''Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays''. London: Methuen (Expanded edition – 1991, by Liberty Fund) * 1966. ''Rationalismus in der Politik''. (trans. K. Streifthau) Neuwied und Berlin: Luchterhard * 1975. ''On Human Conduct''. Oxford:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

* 1975. ''Hobbes on Civil Association''. Oxford: Basil Blackwell * 1983. ''On History and Other Essays''. Basil Blackwell * 1985. ''La Condotta Umana''. Bologna: Società Editrice il Mulino * 1989. ''The Voice of Liberal Learning''. New Haven and London:

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

Posthumous

* 1991. ''Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays''. Indianapolis: Liberty Press * 1993. ''Morality and Politics in Modern Europe''. New Haven: Yale University Press * 1993. ''Religion, Politics, and the Moral Life''. New Haven: Yale University Press * 1996. ''The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Skepticism''. New Haven: Yale University Press * 2000. ''Zuversicht und Skepsis: Zwei Prinzipien neuzeitlicher Politik''. (trans. C. Goldmann). Berlin: Fest * 2004. ''What Is History? And Other Essays''. Thorverton: Imprint Academic * 2006. ''Lectures in the History of Political Thought''. Thorverton: Imprint Academic * 2007. ''The Concept of a Philosophical Jurisprudence: Essays and Reviews 1926–51''. Thorverton: Imprint Academic * 2008. ''The Vocabulary of a Modern European State: Essays and Reviews 1952–88''. Thorverton: Imprint Academic * 2010. ''Early Political Writings 1925–30''. Thorverton: Imprint Academic

Notes

References

External links

Michael Oakeshott Association

* Michael Oakeshott
"Rationalism in Politics"
''Cambridge Journal,'' Volume I, 1947 (broken link – go through your State or Provincial library's subscription service)
Catalogue of the Oakeshott papers
at th

of the

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oakeshott, Michael 1901 births 1990 deaths 20th-century English philosophers 20th-century English essayists 20th-century English historians Academics of the London School of Economics Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Conservatism Critics of Marxism English essayists English male non-fiction writers English political philosophers Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Historians of political thought Hobbes scholars Idealists British lecturers Liberal conservatism People educated at St George's School, Harpenden People from Bromley British philosophers of art British philosophers of culture British philosophers of education Philosophers of history British philosophers of law British philosophers of religion British philosophy academics British Army personnel of World War II