VOICES IN CONVERSATION - PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICS IN THE WORK OF OAKESHOTT,MICHAEL

It is commonplace to suggest that Michael Oakeshott maintained a strict separation of philosophy from politics throughout his work. I challenge this prevailing view by suggesting that Oakeshott abandoned his early idealism on which the strict separation was based. I argue instead that from the 1940s onward, Oakeshott cautiously conceived of a more contingent and open relationship for theory and practice. This relationship is best typified by his adoption of the image of voices in conversation. Finally, I suggest that this understanding of Oakeshott's skeptical and ironical character lends support to Richard Rorty's appropriations of Oakeshott as a fellow ''liberal ironist.''