Moral practices in international relations and normative reasoning

pp. 73-96

in: Davide Orsi, Michael Oakeshott's political philosophy of international relations, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

Despite the considerable impact of Oakeshott's theory of tradition on English School writers, the relevance of Oakeshott's philosophy to the theorizing of international practices has been neglected. This chapter shows the contribution of Oakeshott's philosophy to our understanding of international practices. The chapter starts explaining the impact that Oakeshott's notion of tradition has had on English School writers, and then demonstrates that the notions of tradition and "pursuit of intimation" delineate a model of practical reasoning conceived as based on shared premises. With this discussion as a background, it then compares Oakeshott's position to critical theory and shows its contribution to the recent practice turn and normative international theory.