Conservatism Human Nature

Points:

Points:

Agree: Principle of human imperfection (Trad and ON)

Disagree: Ways in which humans are imperfect (ON/trad vs NR)

Disagree: Whether state should foster human nature (NR)

Agree: Principle of human imperfection (Trad and ON)

• All conservatives believe that humans are imperfect. Despite this imperfection, conservatives also believe that humans can’t and shouldn’t be shaped by the state/government, even though they do recognise the need for a state so that humans don’t take advantage of each other.

  • Conservatives see human imperfection as a constant which politicians need to accommodate rather than seek to alter.

  • TRADITIONAL: For Edmund Burke, the father of conservatism, this was largely influenced by his christianity and the idea of original sin, and how humans are morally imperfect and easily tempted.

  • Conservatives also emphasise that without a government there would be anarchy, which is why a state is needed for order and security. 

    • Thomas Hobbes argued life in a “state of nature” would be “nasty brutish and short”

  • ONE NATION: Oakeshott argued that, “in political activity men sail a boundless and bottomless sea”. He was suggesting that the world was too complex to fully understand and that this was reinforced by human imperfection, as people do not have the ability to make sense of the complex, modern world.

Disagree: Ways in which humans are imperfect (ON vs NR)

• Whilst conservatives agree that humans are imperfect, they disagree on how. 

• While, the New Right sees humans as selfish, One Nation see humans as more incapable and fallible.

• The NEW RIGHT sees humans as self interested and individualistic.

  • More ideologically wedded to individualism. Ayn Rand, for example, saw the pursuit of self-interest as ethical, condemning all forms of selflessness, which she argued created an “artificial” sense of obligation and expectation, going against rational self-interest.

  • Rand and neoliberals believe the role of the state is to protect the positives that rational self-interest can bring to an economy: wealth creation and innovation.

• One-nation conservatives also see humans as imperfect, but in a different way. Rather than emphasising their self-interest, they see humans as fallible and likely to make mistakes.

  • Oakeshott argued that life without a state would be more “noisy, foolish and flawed” rather than “nasty, brutish and short” and that humans were fragile and fallible, but could also be “benign and benevolent’ if they have the right routines, religious principles and teachings from tradition.

Disagree: How society should be structured to foster human nature (Trad vs NR)

• Conservatives also disagree on whether humans should be understood as being naturally communitarian.

• Whilst traditional conservatives believe humans are communitarian to an extent (hence place significant importance on the community), other elements of the New Right see people as selfish and out for themselves.

• TRADITIONAL conservatives argue that humans need community, the Church and tradition and that these things are very natural.

  • Burke, for example, views a natural society as one of “little platoons”; small and largely autonomous communities.

• Parts of the NEW RIGHT strongly disagree and see rational self-interest as part of human nature, seeing society as atomistic. 

  • Ayn Rand argued there was no society, just millions of autonomous individuals seeking self fulfilment, and condemned all forms of personal altruism (selflessness). She therefore didn’t emphasise community at all. 

• This is influenced in part by the centrality of Christianity to traditional conservatives’ thought and of ideology to the New Right’s thought.

Judgement

Overall, conservatives are united on human nature to a relatively small extent.

Whilst their agreement on human nature being imperfect is important and distinguishes conservatism from other political ideologies, the major differences between the New Right and traditional conservatives on how humans are imperfect shouldn’t be overlooked.