Abstract

A sceptical philosopher and long-time professor of politics at the London School of Economics, Michael Oakeshott always showed particular interest in education and teaching as fundamental aspects of human life and conduct. His ideas on these issues, while appearing nostalgic at times, are really “subversiveµ and unconventional, precisely to the extent that the “sceptical humanismµ which distinguishes them is the opposite of teaching exclusively envisaged as the transmission of “technicalµ and utilitarian knowledge. In the first part of the paper, I try to demonstrate the genuine nature of Oakeshott’s scepticism, nurtured by a close relationship between the English philosopher and the tradition of ancient and modern scepticism, via Hobbes and, above all, Montaigne. Using Oakeshott’s own words as much as possible, the second part examines this attitude or philosophical impulse at work