INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF AESTHETICS FOR OAKESHOTT

Why did Michael Oakeshott include an essay about aesthetics in his collection of political essays, Rationalism in Politics? This question has puzzled many readers. One commentator described the inclusion of ‘The Voice of Poetry in the Conversation of Mankind’ as ‘esoteric in connection with the main theme’ of the volume. Others simply pass it by, preferring to focus on the more overtly political topics of the book, which include Oakeshott's famous ‘Rationalism in Politics’ essay and his work on Hobbes. Still others read ‘The Voice of Poetry’ but walk away shaking their heads, finding Oakeshott's ideas about aesthetics foreign to any understanding of art they have ever encountered.

These approaches to Oakeshott's work on aesthetics fail to take account of its fundamental importance to his philosophy as a whole. ‘The Voice of Poetry’ is not a diversion from the serious work of theorizing morality and politics but rather a definitive expression of Oakeshott's philosophical outlook. Here he restates his theory of modality and carves out a place for a mode he had formerly omitted: the poetic mode, which he designates ‘the voice of poetry’. Poetry for Oakeshott was not a mere embellishment, a leisure activity engaged in so that one might return to work refreshed. To listen for the voice of poetry was rather to cultivate a certain detachment from all the mundane things that ordinarily, and unavoidably, concern human beings.