Morality and Politics in Modern Europe

Download or read book Morality and Politics in Modern Europe written by Late Professor of Philosophy and Fellow Michael Oakeshott and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 'Morality and politics in modern Europe', Oakeshott argues that two conflicting moralities underlie two opposed understandings of the office of government in modern Europe. On one hand is the morality of individuality, according to which the role of government is to frame and enforce rules of law that enable individuals to invent and pursue in peace their own diverse projects. On the other is the morality of collectivism, by which government is interpreted as the manager of a unified enterprise whose function is to provide for the community, regarded as an organic whole that pursues a single project to which all other activities are subordinate.