Menneisyys ja politiikka

Authors

• Pertti Lappalainen

Abstract

The idea of this article is to consider how a certain kind of time concept is analogous with a certain kind of concept of politics. How are politics derived from the concept of the past? This article is based on Michael Oakeshotf s texts. He speaks on the one hand of the practical past, which is used to present practical purposes and which tries to connect past and present so that the result is a linear conception of time. This type of time allows no social surprises and it aims for harmony. This is why I call it domesticated time, which is the basis of rational or scientific politics. Rationalism in politics means the glorification of scientific knowledge which can resolve every social and political problem. On the other hand, Oakeshott has discerned the historical past. It is interested only in the past and can be constructed in terms of past conditions. According to it the past is independent from the present; it doesn’t serve the present or the future. Thus the future is undetermined and is full of different possibilities and visions. I call this vital time and it leads to open-ended political activity which tries to maintain movement in a society.