Menaces of Liberal Education: M. Oakeshott

Abstract

In the present text I discuss Michael Oakeshott’s idea of liberal education and its main menace, authority. By identifying two ways of examining the issue of authority, I launch two different perspectives on this issue. The first one is abstract and it considers an early Oakeshottian essay and Gadamer’s rehabilitation of tradition, and allows me to formulate the following thesis: conversation precedes education. The second perspective is an application, and its concreteness allows me to employ the concept of authority in a more leisurely manner.

Keywords

• conversation
• liberal education
• Michael Oakeshott
• universitas
• scholé