  Oakeshott builds his account of civil association in On Human Conduct on an exploration of its presuppositions. These include the ideas of agency, agents, actions, transactions to satisfy wants, instrumental and noninstrumental practices, and the conduct of agents related in terms of such transactions and practices. And he explores ideas about the modern state in European thought and practice, a topic he also discusses in other writings (Oakeshott 1993b, 1996, 2006, 2008). He traces the distinction between civil and enterprise association to the medieval ideas of societas and universitas, terms he borrows (and redefines) for his purpose. Societas designates a relationship of agents in a practice (such as a common language), agents 