ABSTRACT
Michael Oakeshott as a philosopher and political thinker would probably have been better known had he been writing and teaching in France, where philosophy is taught in schools and intellectuals are still sometimes 'household names'. Although Oakeshott spent most of his life writing and teaching about politics and political history his interests were never narrowly political and embraced all aspects of 'our life as human beings in society'. Oakeshott came from a modest, educated middle-class family and was both happy and successful – academically and in terms of sport – at school. Oakeshott refused all political labels, such as 'Left', 'Right', 'liberal' or 'conservative', for himself, arguing that they over-simplified, that they were continental European imports, and that, anyway, he disliked the notion of any kind of political ideology. The main focus of discussion has been on the extent to which Oakeshott is best described as 'liberal' or 'conservative'.
