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Quote by Michael Joseph Oakeshott

“Like Midas, the Rationalist is always in the unfortunate position of not being able to touch anything, without transforming it into an abstraction; he can never get a square meal of experience.”

Quote by Michael Joseph Oakeshott

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Michael Joseph Oakeshott
Michael Joseph Oakeshott

Michael Joseph Oakeshott was an influential British philosopher known for his contributions to political philosophy, moral philosophy, and the philosophy of language. His ideas emphasize the importance of individual freedom, practical wisdom, and social conventions in politics. more

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“History is the long struggle of man, by exercise of his reason, to understand his environment and to act upon it. But the modern period has broadened the struggle in a revolutionary way. Man now seeks to understand, and act on, not only his environment, but himself; and this has added, so to speak, a new dimension to reason and a new dimension to history.”

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Book:What is history?: the George Macaulay Trevelyan lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge January-March 1961
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“History in Burckhardt's words is 'the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another.' The past is intelligible to us only in light of the present; and we can fully understand the present only in light of the past. To enable man to understand the society of the past and to increase his mastery over the society of the present is the dual function of history.”

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Book:What is history?: the George Macaulay Trevelyan lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge January-March 1961
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