Wendell John Coats Jr. is Professor of Government at Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut.Chor-yung Cheung is the Dean of Students of City University of Hong Kong, and specializes in political theory and Hong Kong politics.

In this book Coats and Cheung explain the centrality of Chinese thought in Michael Oakeshott’s philosophy. His notion that life’s value is found in doing things for their own sake rather than for some far-off telos reflects a central preoccupation of Taoism. Thus the essays collected here illuminate 'the poetic character of human activity,' which undoubtedly lies at the heart of Oakeshott’s philosophy. The book brings to light Oakeshott’s notion of the moral life as inherently creative, helping readers to see why he objects to the Rationalism and utilitarianism that pervade so much of modern life.

• Chapter 1: Michael Oakeshott and the Poetic Character of Human ActivityChapter 2: Practical Implications of Oakeshott’s Poetic Conception of Human ActivityChapter 3: Skepticism, Poetic Imagination, and the Art of Non-Instrumentality: Oakeshott and ZhuangziChapter 4: Some Correspondences between Michael Oakeshott’s Critique of Rationalism and A.C. Graham’s account of Spontaneity vs. ReasonChapter 5: Conversation and Learning: Oakeshott and Confucius Chapter 6: Michael Oakeshott and Contemporary Political Philosophy: an interpretationChapter 7: “Theory and Practice” in Oakeshott, Strauss, and VogelinChapter 8: Three Views of Leviathan – Oakeshott, Strauss, and VogelinChapter 9: The Cave, The Tower of Babel, and Civil Conversation: Methaphors and the Philosophical and Political Thought of Oakeshott

Wendell John Coats Jr. is Professor of Government at Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut.Chor-yung Cheung is the Dean of Students of City University of Hong Kong, and specializes in political theory and Hong Kong politics.

In this book Coats and Cheung explain the centrality of Chinese thought in Michael Oakeshott’s philosophy. His notion that life’s value is found in doing things for their own sake rather than for some far-off telos reflects a central preoccupation of Taoism. Thus the essays collected here illuminate 'the poetic character of human activity,' which undoubtedly lies at the heart of Oakeshott’s philosophy. The book brings to light Oakeshott’s notion of the moral life as inherently creative, helping readers to see why he objects to the Rationalism and utilitarianism that pervade so much of modern life.

• Chapter 1: Michael Oakeshott and the Poetic Character of Human ActivityChapter 2: Practical Implications of Oakeshott’s Poetic Conception of Human ActivityChapter 3: Skepticism, Poetic Imagination, and the Art of Non-Instrumentality: Oakeshott and ZhuangziChapter 4: Some Correspondences between Michael Oakeshott’s Critique of Rationalism and A.C. Graham’s account of Spontaneity vs. ReasonChapter 5: Conversation and Learning: Oakeshott and Confucius Chapter 6: Michael Oakeshott and Contemporary Political Philosophy: an interpretationChapter 7: “Theory and Practice” in Oakeshott, Strauss, and VogelinChapter 8: Three Views of Leviathan – Oakeshott, Strauss, and VogelinChapter 9: The Cave, The Tower of Babel, and Civil Conversation: Methaphors and the Philosophical and Political Thought of Oakeshott

Wendell John Coats Jr. is Professor of Government at Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut.Chor-yung Cheung is the Dean of Students of City University of Hong Kong, and specializes in political theory and Hong Kong politics.

In this book Coats and Cheung explain the centrality of Chinese thought in Michael Oakeshott’s philosophy. His notion that life’s value is found in doing things for their own sake rather than for some far-off telos reflects a central preoccupation of Taoism. Thus the essays collected here illuminate 'the poetic character of human activity,' which undoubtedly lies at the heart of Oakeshott’s philosophy. The book brings to light Oakeshott’s notion of the moral life as inherently creative, helping readers to see why he objects to the Rationalism and utilitarianism that pervade so much of modern life.

• Chapter 1: Michael Oakeshott and the Poetic Character of Human ActivityChapter 2: Practical Implications of Oakeshott’s Poetic Conception of Human ActivityChapter 3: Skepticism, Poetic Imagination, and the Art of Non-Instrumentality: Oakeshott and ZhuangziChapter 4: Some Correspondences between Michael Oakeshott’s Critique of Rationalism and A.C. Graham’s account of Spontaneity vs. ReasonChapter 5: Conversation and Learning: Oakeshott and Confucius Chapter 6: Michael Oakeshott and Contemporary Political Philosophy: an interpretationChapter 7: “Theory and Practice” in Oakeshott, Strauss, and VogelinChapter 8: Three Views of Leviathan – Oakeshott, Strauss, and VogelinChapter 9: The Cave, The Tower of Babel, and Civil Conversation: Methaphors and the Philosophical and Political Thought of Oakeshott