  Michael Oakeshott (1901–1990) is often described as a conservative thinker. But this description notices only one aspect of his thought and invites misunderstanding because of its ambiguities. His ideas spring from a lifetime of reading in the history of European thought, sharpened by philosophical reflection on its arguments and presuppositions. Oakeshott worked on the premise that philosophical questions are interconnected and that answering them requires wide-ranging critical reflection. A recurrent theme in his writings on moral and political life is the tension between individuality, which implies plurality, and its denial, which he calls barbarism. Individual freedom is threatened when politics is conceived as the pursuit of ideals. The recent interest of political philosophers in the republican idea of freedom as independence or nondomination suggests the continuing relevance of his thought. So does their interest in political realism as an alternative to moralism. But Oakeshott’s contribution to philosophy is not limited to political philosophy. It includes reflection on the criteria for distinguishing different modes of thought from one another, defining historical inquiry as one such mode, identifying different conceptions of rationality and their place in practical judgment, and distinguishing competing understandings of the modern state. Oakeshott also wrote on religion, morals, education, aesthetics, Hobbes, and the history of political thought. Instead of surveying all these topics, this entry will focus on his most important contributions to philosophy: his theory of modes, his criticism of political rationalism, his argument that the key distinction in modern politics concerns the character and purpose of the state, and his philosophy of history.