Oakeshott's Interpretation Of Leviathan

Oakeshott was an English philosopher and political theorist in the 20th century who wrote about history, philosophy, politics and education. After published the collection entitled Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays which were widely discussed in academic circles, he established his best name in the political philosophy. Meanwhile, Oakeshott was also an expert of Hobbes. He was editor of an edition of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan (1946), for which he provided an introduction recognized as a significant contribution to the literature by later scholars. This paper will focus on Oakeshott's interpretation of Leviathan, trying to inquire the characteristic of Oakeshott's political thought.The first section of this paper tries to figure out the relationship between Oakeshott's interpretation of Leviathan and his philosophical opinions. Oakeshott was an idealist and attached importance to historical method in his research. Oakeshott read Leviathan in the widest context of the history f political philosophy and in Hobbes'time to make the conclusion that Leviathan is the greatest masterpiece of political philosophy written in English language.The second section of this paper focuses on whether Hobbes is a liberalist in Leviathan. Oakeshott thought that liberalism had become an ideology today. Certainly, Hobbes was not a liberalist in his sense, but Hobbes gave much attention on freedom in Leviathan. Oakeshott claimed that the purpose of the establishment of state was to protect the citizens enjoying full freedom fundamentally. Even Hobbes agreed more freedom than most of so-called professed defenders of liberalism.The third section of this paper focuses on whether Hobbes was a rationalist which Oakeshott criticized as a rationalist in politics. The criticism to rationalism occupies an important position in Oakeshott's works. Oakeshott thought that the greatest mistake of rationalists was that they abandoned the tradition ruthlessly and they tried to establish a general applicable theory with reason. Oakeshott thought Hobbes also made such an error, so Hobbes was also a rationalist. But our interpretation or reading of Leviathan must be beyond rationalism. We should understand this great book from the European political tradition.