Disraeli and Oakeshott: Belonging, Tradition and Civil Association

November 10, 2025 · 70:58 · ARCHIVE RECORDING

Can politics be understood as an art of belonging rather than a science of control? In the concluding seminar of the Heritage series, Samuel Woodall brings Benjamin Disraeli and Michael Oakeshott into conversation through the themes of continuity, tradition and political association.

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Episode summary

Disraeli’s Sybil and the image of two nations introduce the problem of social division and the appeal of One Nation politics. Oakeshott’s critique of rationalism then raises a different concern: what is lost when political activity becomes the application of a comprehensive plan?

The session explores the relationship between imaginative attachment and philosophical restraint. It asks how a conservative disposition can value familiar practices while still confronting the fractures within a society. As the Heritage series closes, these themes connect the earlier encounters with Plato, Augustine, Burke, Maistre and Scruton.

Questions explored

• How does Disraeli’s image of two nations frame the problem of belonging?
• What does Oakeshott mean by being conservative?
• How does civil association differ from politics organised around a single collective purpose?

Episode guide

A thematic guide, rather than timed chapters:

• Sybil, social division and One Nation politics.
• Oakeshott’s critique of rationalism and the conservative disposition.
• Civil association, continuity and belonging.

Texts and further reading

• Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil; or, The Two Nations.
• Michael Oakeshott, “On Being Conservative.”
• Michael Oakeshott’s account of civil association, discussed in the episode.

These readings are identified in the published episode description.

Participants

Samuel Woodall, seminar presenter.

Transcript

Read the transcript supplied by Buzzsprout. Check quotations against the recording before citing them.