01538nas a2200109   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002100001900043245011800062520123400180022001401414       2018                            d1 aIleana Dascalu00aCultural Heritage and the Inheritance of Civilization. Insights from Michael Oakeshott s Reflections on Education3 aMichael Oakeshott viewed liberal education as an initiation into the inheritance of civilization, an intellectual pursuit unsubordinated to outer aims, and an expression of human freedom. In his reflections on education, the notions of "inheritance" and "civilization" are given a prominent place, as contents and processes forming human identity. Both lack the static and commemorative meanings common usage sometimes ascribes them; for Oakeshott, they are to a greater and deeper extent intangible, rather than tangible elements of collective and individual identities. At the same time, international institutions created to protect and promote cultural heritage, and, more recently, intangible cultural heritage, have initiated an idiom defining heritage in relation to human identity, as well as to social and political values which would support its safeguarding. It is the purpose of this article to suggest a comparison between the two kinds of discourses, in the attempt to clarify the normative depth of both "heritage" and "education", using valuable insights from Oakeshott s reflections, and, in the end, to shed light on some irreconcilable differences between liberal education, and the "heritage studies" mindset.  a1453-9047