Conservative & Libertarian Thinkers – Key Vocabulary

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30 vocabulary flashcards summarising key thinkers (Hobbes, Burke, Oakeshott, Rand, Nozick) and their views on human nature, state, society and economy.

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30 Terms

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Hobbes - Human Nature

  • Intellectually, psychologically and morally imperfect

  • Competitive, selfish and aggressive

  • Driven by a restless desire for power

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Hobbes’ - State of Nature

  • Pre-political condition in which life is ‘nasty, brutish and short’

  • People live in continual fear of violent death.

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Hobbes - Social Contract

  • Willing surrender of individual liberty to an authoritarian sovereign in exchange for peace and security

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Burke - Human Nature

  • Pessimistic

  • People are fragile and irrational

  • Seek safety in tradition and familiar institutions.

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Little Platoons

Burke’s term for the small, local associations (family, church, community) that bind society and foster belonging.

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Organic Society (Burke)

A naturally evolved hierarchy held together by tradition, linking the living, the dead and the yet-unborn.

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Trustee Model of Representation

Burke’s idea that MPs owe constituents their judgment, not mere obedience to popular opinion.

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‘Change to Conserve’

Burke’s belief that prudent, gradual reform preserves existing social order better than radical change.

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Oakeshott’s View of Human Nature

Humans are fallible but not immoral; imperfect reasoning means politics should avoid absolute ‘correct’ answers.

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Politics as Conversation (Oakeshott)

The notion that governing should be a pragmatic dialogue guided by experience, not ideological argument.

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Anti-Rationalism

Suspicion of abstract, blueprint thinking in politics; preference for tradition, empiricism and incremental change.

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State’s Role ‘to Prevent the Bad’

Oakeshott’s claim that government should avert harm rather than pursue grand projects to create the good.

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Objectivism

Ayn Rand’s philosophy declaring reason the only path to knowledge and one’s own happiness the moral purpose of life.

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Randian Egoism

Ethical stance that individuals should exist for their own sake and reject altruistic sacrifice.

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Separation of State and Economics

Rand’s call for government to keep ‘hands off’ business, limiting itself to protecting rights and security.

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Free-Market Capitalism (Rand)

A social system where all property is privately owned and voluntary exchange governs economic life.

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‘Money is the Barometer of a Society’s Virtue’

Rand’s assertion that a free market’s currency reflects the moral health of a society.

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Positive View of Human Nature (Nozick)

Belief that people are ends in themselves with inviolable rights, generally capable of peaceful coexistence.

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Negative Rights

Rights of non-interference—life, liberty, property—that others (including the state) must not violate.

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Property Rights (Nozick)

The principle that individuals own their bodies, talents and produced goods; state coercion of these is unjust.

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Minarchist ‘Night-Watchman’ State

Nozick’s minimal government limited to protection against force, theft, fraud and contract enforcement.

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Taxation as ‘Legalised Slavery’

Nozick’s claim that compulsory taxes force individuals to work for others without consent.

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Welfare as Theft

Nozick’s view that redistributive programs violate property rights and create dependency.

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Atomistic Society

Nozick’s conception that society is merely a collection of distinct individuals with their own lives.

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Voluntary Communities (Nozick)

The idea that free individuals may choose to form small groups for mutual support, rejecting enforced collectivism.

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Authoritarian Peace-Preserving State (Hobbes)

A sovereign power necessary to impose order and prevent the chaos of the state of nature.

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Natural Free Market (Burke/Oakeshott)

Support for laissez-faire commerce tempered by prudence and moderation rather than ideological dogma.

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Pragmatic Economic Management

Burke’s counsel that state involvement in markets should be guided by experience, not rigid theory.

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Empiricism

Decision-making based on accumulated historical experience and observable evidence rather than abstract design.

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Tradition

Inherited customs and institutions that provide continuity, stability and a check on radical change.