The Legendary Past by Natalie Riendeau

Author:Natalie Riendeau
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Michael Oakeshott, politics, philosophy, imagnation, legends, foundational narratives, human living-together, Arendt, political modernity, foundations, edenic, constructivism, constructivist, myth, modes of experience, natural rights, scepticism, American Republic, contingent foundations, poetry, poetic conservatism, Ancient Rome, rationalism, Magna Carta
ISBN: 9781845407834
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2014
Published: 2014-12-10T00:00:00+00:00

There is, consequently, a foundational element to Oakeshott’s conception of the political. It remains to determine what kind of foundations satisfies the criteria he establishes. Following Seery’s framework, I have distinguished between two different kinds of foundations: Edenic and constructivist. It is my position that Oakeshott does not belong to the Edenic tradition of foundations. He rejects any sort of prior grounding claim about unquestionable, sacred or natural premises. Oakeshott commentators agree that his conception of the political is devoid of such foundations. His conception of authority does not rest on a social purpose, on approved moral ideals, a common good, a general interest or an abstract idea of justice. Rather, the tie of civil association is continuous assent by cives to civil authority. Put another way, what relates cives to one another is the acknowledgment of the authority of respublica and the continued recognition of the rules of association as rules. Moreover, as regards political activity, its persuasive and argumentative character excludes Edenic foundations. Conclusions about the desirability of civil prescriptions cannot be deduced from theorems about the natural conditions of human life, from a moral rule, a law of reason, a law of nature, a principle of utility, a categorical imperative or a Golden Rule. Nor can they be established by connecting it inferentially with a superior norm of unquestionable or acknowledged desirability. The discussion of the mixed form of politics reinforces this point. The alliance of scepticism and natural rights, the mixture of contingency and permanence adopted by the American Founding Fathers, is deemed to be an illegitimate mixed form of politics by Oakeshott because the foundational element it incorporates is Edenic. Therefore, if the foundational element his conception of the political postulates cannot be Edenic, it must, consequently, be constructivist. In this sense, Oakeshott does not argue for the kind of contingent foundations Butler proposes. He is not a proponent of grounding claims which remain ‘ungrounded’ and ‘open’ in that they may always be redefined, reconceived and reinterpreted. There simply are no such grounding claims in Oakeshott’s conception of the political and commentators in this regard are correct in their analysis of his political thought.

What, then, is the constructivist foundational element present in Oakeshott’s conception of the political? What has thus far been overlooked by commentators is the central role played by imagination in founding the political in Oakeshott’s thought. If attention is solely paid to Oakeshott’s discussion of authority and politics in On Human Conduct, then it would naturally be concluded that the tie of civil association is simply the continued recognition of the rules as rules by cives. However, what this analysis ignores is the fundamental importance of identity for Oakeshott’s political thought. As I argue in chapters 4 and 5, at the heart of his conception of conservatism is his concern for an individual’s as well as for a political society’s identity. A political society simply cannot exist, cannot function without a sense of identity, of self-consciousness and of self-understanding. There is more to human living-together for Oakeshott than the recognition of the rules as rules.

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