The Poetic Character of Human Activity: Collected Essays on the Thought of Michael Oakeshott

by Wendell John Coats Jr., Chor-yung Cheung

Overview

The Poetic Character of Human Activity is a collection of essays by two Oakeshott scholars, most of which explores the meaning of Oakeshott’s pregnant phrase, “the poetic character of human activity” by comparing and contrasting this idea with similar and opposing ones, in particular those of the Taoist thinker, Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), and his Western interpreter, A.C. Graham. Oakeshott’s deep appreciation of the poetic and non-instrumental character of human activity led him to develop an interest in the works of Zhuangzi and Confucius. Comparison of shared themes between Oakeshott and these two Chinese thinkers facilitates appreciation of his elegant analytic style and his resort to use of metaphors and story-telling when conveying some of his most profound insights. The collection also contains essays contrasting Oakeshott’s idea of the “creative” in human experience with views of, among others, Plato, Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin.

Oakeshott used the phrase “the poetic character of human activity” (arguably the animating center of his entire thought), to refer to the “creative” character of human experiential reality, that is, to the fact that the form (the how) and content (the what) of all human experience and activity arise simultaneously and fluidly, and can be separated only at the expense of theoretical coherence and practical skill. The various essays in this collection explore the meaning of this claim, and its ramifications for the proper role of critical intellect in especially philosophy, morality, learning, and governance. There is also some brief contrast of Oakeshott with John Rawls, Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and Quentin Skinner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739171615
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	07/20/2012
Pages:	150
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.28(h) x 0.67(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Wendell John Coats Jr. is Professor of Government at Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut.

Chor-yung Cheung is the Dean of Students of City University of Hong Kong, and specializes in political theory and Hong Kong politics.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Michael Oakeshott and the Poetic Character of Human Activity
Chapter 2: Practical Implications of Oakeshott’s Poetic Conception of Human Activity
Chapter 3: Skepticism, Poetic Imagination, and the Art of Non-Instrumentality: Oakeshott and Zhuangzi
Chapter 4: Some Correspondences between Michael Oakeshott’s Critique of Rationalism and A.C. Graham’s account of Spontaneity vs. Reason
Chapter 5: Conversation and Learning: Oakeshott and Confucius
Chapter 6: Michael Oakeshott and Contemporary Political Philosophy: an interpretation
Chapter 7: “Theory and Practice” in Oakeshott, Strauss, and Vogelin
Chapter 8: Three Views of Leviathan – Oakeshott, Strauss, and Vogelin
Chapter 9: The Cave, The Tower of Babel, and Civil Conversation: Methaphors and the Philosophical and Political Thought of Oakeshott

Editorial Reviews

In this book Coats and Cheung explain the centrality of Chinese thought in Michael Oakeshott’s philosophy. His notion that life’s value is found in doing things for their own sake rather than for some far-off telos reflects a central preoccupation of Taoism. Thus the essays collected here illuminate 'the poetic character of human activity,' which undoubtedly lies at the heart of Oakeshott’s philosophy. The book brings to light Oakeshott’s notion of the moral life as inherently creative, helping readers to see why he objects to the Rationalism and utilitarianism that pervade so much of modern life.

Elizabeth Corey