“Sophists in academic dress: Oakeshott’s ‘The study of “politics” in a university’”

Fear, Christopher

Abstract

What sort of activity should Politics academics aim to inculcate in their students? Only truth-seeking, logical thinking, and the ability to scrutinize evidence for themselves? Or also the will and ability to perform supposedly beneficial extra-academic functions, including political activism in the cause of “social justice”? This dilemma, it appears, is presently opening a schism between “Truth Uni” and “Social Justice Uni” (see Lukianoff and Haidt, 2018: 253–62). Here I am proposing that this ongoing general debate about the true nature and purpose of the university can be partially disentangled with the aid of Michael Oakeshott’s essay, “The study of ‘politics’ in a university”, first published in Rationalism in Politics in 1962. That essay remains relevant, instructive, and extremely challenging, and is especially valuable because of its focus on what happens in Politics departments, where it is perhaps more obvious than in any other of the university’s departments how the two implicit teloi, (1) discovering truth, and (2) realizing “social justice”, tend to frustrate and obstruct each other. I close with some reflections on how university teachers of Politics can defend themselves against Oakeshott’s challenge, so long as they can resist the temptations of modern sophistry.

Citation

Fear, C. (2022). “Sophists in academic dress: Oakeshott’s ‘The study of “politics” in a university’”. Cosmos+Taxis, 10(7-8), 62-71

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 17, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: May 24, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 24, 2022
• Journal: Cosmos+Taxis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 7-8
• Pages: 62-71
• Keywords: Michael Oakeshott; Politics; Universities; Higher education; Activism.
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4003098
• Publisher URL: https://cosmosandtaxis.org/