Books published by Imprint Academic

This book challenges the common view that Michael Oakeshott was mainly important as a political philosopher by offering the first comprehensive study of his ideas on history.

This volume includes four principal papers and a total of 43 peer commentaries on the evolutionary origins of morality.

First of a three-volume series of the "Journal of Consciousness Studies", which asks if it is possible to take a natural science approach to art and uncover general laws of aesthetic experience, or is that taking reductionism too far?

This book is the fourth volume of a major five-year research programme on devolution funded by the Leverhulme Trust. It provides a stock-take of the effect of devolution during the first term of the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales.

This highly readable new collection of thirty pieces by Michael Oakeshott, almost all of which are previously unpublished, covers every decade of his intellectual career.

This book presents the views of the founders of constructivism and modern systems theory, who are still providing stimulating cues for international scientific debate. Throughout, the central figure of the observer is examined with sophisticated wit and just enough irritating grit to create the pearl in the oyster.

This book suggests that Darwinian biology sustains conservative social thought by showing how the human capacity for spontaneous order arises from social instincts and a moral sense shaped by natural selection in human evolutionary history.

The New Idea of a University is an entertaining and highly readable defence of the philosophy of liberal arts education and an attack on the sham that has been substituted for it. It is sure to scandalize all the friends of the present establishment and be cheered elsewhere.

This book examines Oakeshott's political philosophy within the context of his more general conception of philosophical understanding. The book stresses the underlying continuity of his major writings on the subject and takes seriously the implications of understanding the world in terms of modality.

This book examines the historical forces that gave rise to the modern political party and questions its role in the post-ideological age. If we all now share the liberal market consensus, then what is the function of the party?

In daily life we take it for granted that our minds have conscious control of our actions, at least for most of the time. But many scientists and philosophers deny that this is really the case, because there is no generally accepted theory of how the mind interacts with the body. Max Velmans presents a non-reductive solution to the problem.

A comprehensive reader on the problem of the self as seen from the perspectives of philosophy, development psychology, robotics, cognitive neuroscience, psychopathology, semiotics, phenomenology and contemplative studies, all focused on a keynote paper.

In The Last Prime Minister the author shows the British people how they have acquired an executive presidency by stealth. It is the first-ever attempt to codify the Prime Minister's powers, many hidden in the mysteries of the royal prerogative.

Using theatre as a measure society's health, this book shows that Ancient Greece and Rome, Medieval Christendom and our own contemporary society all follow the same pattern: prosperity thrives on the conviction that the material world alone constitutes true 'reality'; but that very conviction leads to a rejection of the supernatural.

This book presents a comprehensive study of Oakeshott''s conception of political activity. The author first examines Oakeshott in the contexts of liberal, conservative and Idealist thought, and then presents a detailed interpretation of the change in his conception of politics in the context of British postwar political thought. It is argued that OakeshottΓÇÖs conception of political activity shifted from a near contempt of politics towards the applauding of politics as a deliberative and reflective activity. The development is disclosed by examining the change in his key concepts, such as authority and tradition. Accordingly, some rather unexpected aspects of OakeshottΓÇÖs thought, such as his close relationship to the linguistic turn, appear. The author argues that although Oakeshott cannot exactly be classified as belonging to that group of political philosophers for whom politics represents a superior human activity, his later work presents an important and original view of politics as an art of contingency.

For more than thirty years the solution to all Britain''s problems has been better management. As a result management schools dominate higher education and managers are at work everywhere developing ''strategiesΓÇÖ and ΓÇÿsystemsΓÇÖ and quantifying ΓÇÿoutcomesΓÇÖ. There are now more managers on the rail network than train drivers, yet the benefits of modern management of railways, schools, hospitals and universities are elusive. This is because ΓÇÿmanagementΓÇÖ does not existΓÇöthe academic study of ΓÇÿmanagement scienceΓÇÖ and the assumption that there are universal management skills are bogus. This book shows how modern management practices have all but destroyed politics, education, culture and religionΓÇömodern management is the cause of our national malaise.

The State of the Nations 2003 is the third publication of a major research programme into devolution in the United Kingdom, published on behalf of the Constitution Unit at University College London.

This text is compiled of essays critical of the Government's handling of constitutional reform in relation to Europe, Westminster and devolution.