Description
Book SynopsisOn Human Conduct is composed of three connected essays. Each has its own concern: the first with theoretical understanding, and with human conduct in general; the second with an ideal mode of human relationship which the author has called civil association; and the third with that ambiguous, historic association commonly called a modern European state. Running through the work is Professor Oakshott''s belief in philosophical reflection as an adventure: the adventure of one who seeks to understand in other terms what he already understands, and where the understanding is sought is a disclosure of the conditions of the understanding enjoyed and not a substitute for it. Its most appropriate expression is an essay, which, he writes, ''does not dissemble the conditionality of the conclusions it throws up and although it may enlighten it does not instruct.''
Trade Review`Oakeshott presents three essays: on the theoretical understanding of human conduct, on the civil condition as the ideal mode of human association, and on the modern European state ... this book is rather like a long elegant conversation - sometimes rather abstract, always with a keen eye for concrete exemplification, learned, analytical, and full of trenchant insights.' Library Journal
Table of ContentsOn the theoretical understanding of human conduct; On the civil condition; On the character of a modern European state
