On Oakeshott's Theory Of Civil Association

There are several separate views on the orientation of Oakeshott's theory in the spectrum of political philosophy.One of them is that some scholars have focused their attention on Oakeshott's earlier thoughts of which he critiqued the rationalism in politics,during this periord,Oakeshott took 'tradition' as the core content of his discourse,meanwhile adopted a rhetorical style of expression,thus his thoughts could be divided into conservatism.There are also scholars who pay more attention on Oakeshott's theory of civil association in his later periord of thoughts in which Oakeshott attaches great importance to the conceptual derivation of the logic level as well as taking the abstract analysis of human nature as the starting point of his argument,and then deduces the form and function of the nation,actually,this method of discussion fits well with Hobbesian style of constructivism.Besides,the theory of civil association highlights the concept of a limited government with individual freedom,thus some scholars tend to regard Oakeshott as a liberalist.In addition,some scholars agree with Oakeshott's dual orientation in the political spectrum for the reason that his thoughts not only demonstrate the main theme of conservatism but could also be divided into the liberalism.These separate viewpoints make it difficult for us to position Oakeshott' s thoughts clearly which have caused confusion in the research process and the existence of this obstacle has also made it tough to deepen the research in this field.Therefore,the discussion in this paper aims to alleviate such difficulty.For the disagreement of the above views,the focus of the dispute is the foundational principles of the theory of civil association.Scholars who adhere to regard Oakeshott as a liberalist believe that the strong constructivist style of this theory implies that Oakeshott has deviated from the conservatism in the later period and no longer put his attention on the interpretation of tradition.While the purpose of this paper is to illustrate that the theory of civil association is based on the core idea of conservatism which is embodied in two aspects,one of them is the imprecision of Oakeshott's argumentation so that it makes the theory of civil association unable to be regarded as a constructive system in a strong sense;the second one is that a strong historical background can be seen from this theory and it means that Oakeshott did not ignore the important role of tradition in politics.In a word,the view of this paper is to regard Oakeshott as a supporter of conservatism and try to make a response to the dispute in this field.This paper first sorts out the background and connotation of the theory of civil association and then mainly discusses from two aspects.First,the paper explores the intrinsic logic of the demonstration from the interpretation of human conduct to the institution of civil association.As for Oakeshott,his analysis of human nature is based on the philosophical foundation of british idealism.Starting from the premise of free agent,Oakeshott considers the state as a political community which use authoritative rules as the link of ties,thus this form of community can effectively maintain the order and at the same time provide a platform for ensuring the freedom of citizens.On thisbasis,this paper aims to make a reflect on the logic of Oakeshott's argumentation as well as trying to explain that the theory of civil association is difficult to guide the political practice in the real world.On the other hand,this paper focuses on excavating the conservatism background of the theory of civil association and its main viewpoint is that the form of civil association under Oakeshott's perspective has compatible factors with England's institution influenced by the tradition of common law,meanwhile Oakeshott himself believes that the politics of modern Europe maintains tension between collectivism and individualism.From this historical perspective,it is found that tradition takes prominent position in the theory of civil association.In addition,Oakeshott's theory of civil association has the value of reference for the controversy within the conservatism.For the question of what kind of tradition should be preserved,the discussion in this paper in a sense gives an answer of which needs to be preserved is the tradition of order-centered political communities,thus order is able to maintain people's freedom in the historical context of England,and this idea has also presented in the political circumstance of the world today.Finally,this paper holds an open-ended attitude for that it intends to make a discussion of Oakeshott's political thoughts in a manner of dialogue.