conservatism key thinkers knowledge flashcards

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Thomas Hobbes is considered one of England’s most important political thinkers. Although widely seen as a ‘conservative’ philosopher, he is also linked to the liberal principle of government by consent and the philosophical idea of a ‘state of nature’ later used to different effect by the liberal philosopher John Locke. Hobbes was born in Wiltshire and studied logic, physics and maths at Oxford before forming a lifelong link with the noble Cavendish family, who provided him with the time, connections and resources to think and write. His political arguments were shaped by his interest in deductive scientific methods, the ideas of philosophers such as Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and the disruptive impact of the English Civil War (1642-51). Hobbes’s major political preoccupations, as revealed by his writings, were …

 the need for governments to exercise absolute political authority, social contract theory as the fundamental basis for order and the legitimacy to govern, and the relationship between political obedience and peace. Hobbes’s important published works were Leviathan (1651), History of the Peloponnesian War (1628), De Cive (1642), The Elements of Law (1650), Behemoth (1679) and A Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England (1681).

Hobbes’s key ideas focused on i. Order (based on the laws of nature and power of the sovereign) should balance the need for a free life and right of self-protection ii. Human nature: humans are needy, vulnerable and easily led astray in attempts to understand the world around them. In Leviathan, Hobbes took a profoundly sceptical view of human nature, arguing it was ruthlessly egotistical and likely to commit cruel and destructive acts. Hobbes also asserted that, prior to the emergence of the state, there was no cooperation or voluntary arrangements between individuals and therefore none of the …

 ‘natural rights’ later cited by liberals. Instead, the Hobbesian state of nature was a place of scarce resources where individuals would be driven by unflinching self-interest. Human nature was thus shaped by a restless desire for the acquisition of goods, an immovable distrust of others and a constant fear of violent death. In Hobbes’ own words, life in his state of nature would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”.

 For Hobbes, such ‘natural chaos’ stemmed from the absence of any formal authority, which could enforce an unquestioned code of right and wrong. In its absence, Hobbes noted, mankind in the state of nature was left to form its own version of acceptance conduct. Yet, because each person's vision of this was likely to be different, uncertainty and war were inevitable. Hobbes didn’t consider mankind irrational, believing it would eventually …

recognise the state of nature as being contrary to self-interest and agree to a ‘contract’. Under this contract, individuals would render to a ‘sovereign’ (state) the right to make laws which restrained everyone and allow the order and security that were absent in the state of nature. This would eventually lead to a ‘society’, where individuals could enjoy some security and progress. 

For the state to accomplish its side of the bargain, Hobbes claimed this power must be concentrated. If it were dispersed, Hobbes argued, then the conflict within the state of nature would soon be replicated. Overall, he argued that the …

principal reason for the state was the creation of order and security; that without such a state there could be no civil society and for the state to be effective, it would have to be awesome and forbidding. 

Thomas Hobbes quotes:

“Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” - Leviathan 1651

“The condition of man … is a condition of war”

'The sovereign power cannot justly be questioned or opposed once it has been established'

“Government is necessary … man is by nature more individualistic than social”

Edmund Burke (1729-97
Edmund Burke, a Whig MP and thinker, is one of the most important contributors to the intellectual development of modern conservatism. Anglo-Irish and born in Dublin, Burke initially trained as a lawyer but soon gave this up to pursue a literary career and became the founding editor of the National Review. In the later decades of the 18th century he supported a number of progressive causes, such as the abolition of capital punishment, Catholic emancipation and opposition to absentee landlordism in Ireland. He was also a …

critic of British government policy regarding America, acting as an agent in parliament for the colony of New York, arguing that taxation of the colonies was unjust and calling for moderation and reconciliation. Burke endorsed Adam Smith’s economic arguments for free trade too. Having said this, his powerful critique of the French Revolution, which was developed in his most famous book Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), has ensured that Burke’s reputation and legacy rests primarily on his conservative philosophy rather than his ‘liberal’ outlook

Burke’s other notable works include A Vindication of Natural Society (1756), Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770) and An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs (1791), Thoughts on French Affairs (1791) and Letters on a Regicide Peace (1796-97). As of one …

 of the ‘founding fathers’ of conservatism, Burke is associated with a. Pragmatic and cautious change b. tradition and empiricism.

In Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790, Burke defined various tenets of conservative thought, including human imperfection, empiricism, organicism, traditions, aristocracy and localism. In respect of human imperfection, Burke stressed mankind’s fallibility and its tendency to fail more than succeed. He therefore denounced the idealistic society that the French Revolution imagined, claiming it was based on a utopian and thus unrealistic view of human nature. Burke argued that, …

while change was necessary to conserve, change should proceed on the basis of fact and experience rather than theory and idealism. Burke duly criticised the French Revolution for discarding what was ‘known’ in favour of an entirely new society based on ‘philosophical abstraction’. This was a very different rationale, Burke argued, from that of the American colonialists, whose own revolution stemmed from a practical desire to conserve an established way of life that had evolved organically.

Burke claimed that both society and the state were complex, based on history and slow, evolutionary change. He therefore insisted that future change must also be cautious and organic,m and denounced the French Revolution for discarding history and tradition. Burke was scathing about the French Revolution’s stress on equality, asserting that within all ‘organic’ societies, a ruling class was inevitable and desirable. However, this class had a clear obligation to govern in the interests of all. For Burke …

it was the French aristocracy’s failure to do this that had led to revolution. Burke condemned the new French republic for its highly centralised structures, praising instead a society of ‘little platoons’: a multitude of small, diverse and largely autonomous communities, which would ‘acknowledge, nurture and prune … the crooked timber of humanity”.

Edmund Burke quotes:

“The pretended rights of these theorists are all extremes: and in proportion as they are metaphysically true, they are morally and politically false.”

"Society is but a contract between the dead, the living and those yet to be born."

“All men have equal rights, but not to equal things”

“History is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn”

Michael Oakeshott (1901-90)

Michael Oakeshott is regarded as one of the most important conservative philosophers of the C20th, bringing a fresh perspective to the core themes of traditional conservatism. In his work ‘On being conservative,’ he outlines what it means to be a true conservative. In a famous passage, he explains that the conservative disposition is “to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried … [and] the actual to the possible.” Oakeshott is also widely-known within the field of political theory for his sage observation that “in political activity men sail a boundless and bottomless sea.” In other words, it has neither a starting point nor an …

appointed destination. The realm of political ideas is therefore beyond our limited understanding. Oakeshott also seeks to outline the conservative stance upon the role of the state. According to him, the state should be conceptualised as a ship that can be used to ensure social harmony. Crucially, he does not believe that the state can create a new society or a utopia based upon notions of social progress. Both notions would exist outside his conservative disposition, or more accurately the one-nation school of thought. He argued that we should merely seek to keep the ship of state afloat. Above all, we should be suspicious of would-be pilots that claim they can guide us towards a final port of destination.

Oakeshott wished to qualify the negative Hobbesian view of human nature. Most men and women, he argued, are “fallible but not terrible” and “imperfect but not immoral”. Though incapable of the ‘perfect’ societies linked to other ideologies, humanity was still able to secure ‘both pleasure and improvement through the humdrum business of everyday life’. From this perspective, Oakeshott tried to make conservatism seem more …

optimistic than ideologies such as liberalism and socialism. He argued that such ideologies, with their clear views of how society ‘should’ be, simply led to impatience, intolerance and frustration. By contrast, Oakeshott claimed that conservatives are reconciled to human imperfection and thus have a greater appreciation of the pleasures that already exist in life - such as families and friends. 

Being dismissive of ‘normative’ politics, with its ‘simplistic’ visions that overlook ‘the complexity of now’, Oakeshott affirmed the merits of an empirical and pragmatic approach to both politics and life generally. He argued that it was through experience, trial and error, rather than abstract philosophy, that wisdom was achieved. These perspectives on human nature informed Oakeshott’s views about the state/ in his final work, The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism (published in 1996, 6 years post-humously), he argued that the state existed to ‘prevent the bade rather than create the good’, restating that the best things in life normally emerge from routine, apolitical activity. This also led him to …

offer his ‘nautical metaphor’: that, during our lives, ‘we all sail a boundless sea, with no appointed decision’ and that the job of government is to reflect this by: “keeping the ship afloat at all costs … using experience to negotiate every storm, stoicism to accept necessary changes of direction … and not fixating on a port that may not exist”. His critics, especially conservatives of the New Right, claim his philosophy is too fatalistic and underestimates our ability to shape circumstances. For the New Right eg. Nozick, the ‘Oakeshott mentality’ was ‘lazy’ and allowed socialist ideas to advance unchallenged after 1945.

Michael Oakeshott quotes:

“fallible but not terrible” and “imperfect but not immoral”

"The office of government is not to impose other beliefs and activities upon its subjects but to secure them in the enjoyment of what they have chosen'

“Keeping the ship afloat at all costs … using experience to negotiate every storm, stoicism to accept necessary changes of direction … and not fixating on a port that may not exist”

"To be conservative ... is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried”

“What has stood the test of time is good and must not be lightly cast aside.”

Ayn Rand (1905-82)

Ayn Rand (1905-1982), a Russian-born American, was a philosopher, novelist and neo-liberal conservative. She promoted rational self-interest, individual freedom and a pure laissez-faire capitalist economy, summarising her position as ‘the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.’ Educated in the USSR, her views were initially shaped by …

her loathing of the Russian communist regime because the Soviet authorities had confiscated her father’s prosperous pharmacy business, which left her family impoverished for a time.  As a neo-liberal conservative, Rand is associated with the three interlinked concepts of objectivism (based on rational and ethical egoism), economic freedom and anti-statism/collectivism

Rand’s defining work, the novel Atlas Shrugged (!957), secured her status as a highly influential libertarian. Its theme was that talented individuals, rather than ambitious governments, lay at the heart of any successful society. The novel suggested that without the energy of such individuals, a society would quickly wither - no matter how much activity was expended by governments. This theme was restated in a non-dictional way through Rand’s works of philosophy. The Virtue of Selfishness (1964) explained a …

philosophical system that Rand described as ‘objectivism’ - its core belief being that we should all be guided by self-interest and ‘rational self-fulfilment’. For this reason, Rand became associated with the New Right’s atomism, the term for a society defined by millions of autonomous individuals, each independently seeking self-fulfilment and each independently seeking self-fulfilment and self-realisation. Indeed, Rand’s work provided a philosophical justification for the idea that society did not exist in any practical form; it was just a loose collection of independent individuals.

Although Rand's ideas are consistent with both classical liberalism and neo-liberalism, they gained political traction on account of New Right politics in the 1970s. Her ‘objectivist’ philosophy became strongly linked to the New Right's support for a more laissez-faire brand of capitalism and its renewal of ‘negative liberty’, thus providing a philosophical justification for ‘rolling back the frontiers of the state’ via policies such as tax cuts and privatisation. Rand was proud to call herself a libertarian, in that she defended not just free markets but also an individual's right to choose in areas like …

homosexuality and abortion. However, Rand dismissed the rights of native Americans, and argued they have no right to property that was ‘primitive’ or ancestral. In her later work, Rand strengthened her connection to conservatism by stating that liberty was impossible without order and security, which only a state could provide. Her conservative credentials were highlighted by her support for ultra-conservative Republic candidate Barry Goldwater in the 1964 US presidential election, during which she wrote: ‘The small state is the strong state”

Ayn Rand quotes:

“The small state is the strong state” - Atlas Shrugged 1957

“The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves.” - Capitalism - The Unknown Ideal (1966)

“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”

“The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time”

“The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence.”

Robert Nozick (1938-2002)

Robert Nozick is a key figure along the libertarian-right of the political spectrum and is best-known for the philosophical debate with John Rawls concerning the role of justice. Nozick sought to defend the concept of natural justice i.e. that justice is served by considering that which would occur naturally without state interference. Social justice (advocated by Rawls) however takes the opposite view and requires a degree of state intervention. Both sides of the debate claim their outlook is the fairest. Nozick wrote widely throughout his career, but his most important work remains …

‘Anarchy, the State and Utopia’ (1974) in which he promotes the case for a minimal state. This was Nozick’s response to Rawls’ work a few years earlier on the Theory of Justice. The debate between these two intellectuals did much to revive political philosophy, and Nozick was gracious enough to acknowledge that the Rawlsian conception of justice provided “the benchmark, where all others must subscribe or state their reasons why not.”

Nozick developed many of the themes first raised by neoliberal philosopher Friedrich Von Hayek in The Road to Serfdom 1944. Like Hayek, Nozick argued that the growth of government was the greatest contemporary great to individual freedom. More specifically, Nozick thought that the growth of welfare states in western Europe fostered a ‘dependency culture’. Despite the title of his most famous work, Nozick was not a true anarchist in that he believed in a ‘minarchist’ state - one that mainly involved …

 outsourcing public services to private companies. This minarchist prescription owed much to Nozick’s optimistic view of human nature, which seems very different from that of Thomas Hobbes and Edmund Burke. Indeed, some have suggested that Nozick's philosophy has less in common with conservatism than with strands of anarchism. For example, his claim that ‘tax, for the most part, is theft” indicates an upbeat view that individuals have self-ownership, that they are the sole authors of their talents and abilities, and that they should be left alone to realise those talents without intervention from government

However, there are reasons why Nozick is considered a conservative. First Nozick’s view of human nature was not wholeheartedly positive. He argued that, while dishonesty, theft and violence were not the main characteristics of humanity, the preservation of life, liberty and property ‘could not be taken for granted’ without some formal authority enforcing laws: a vital concession to the legacy of Hobbes. Secondly …

 the purpose of Nozick's limited state was not simply to facilitate raw individualism and free-market capitalism. For Nozick, the minanarchism he prescribed would allow a multitude of self-sufficient communities to emerge alongside the extension of individual freedom. In Nozick’s minarchist society, each of these communities would be free to practice its particular values, including values which might be seen as culturally unorthodox. This arguably represented an updated version of Burke’s view that the best form of society is one consisting of a variety of ‘little platoons’.

Robert Nozick quotes:

“They throw your vote in with theirs. If they are exactly tied your vote carries the issue. Otherwise it makes no difference to the electoral outcome.”

“freedom-loving pack animals”

“Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor.”

“No state more extensive than the minimal state can be justified.”

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): (1)

Traditional Conservative:

• State of nature

• Paternalistic state

“Nasty, Brutish and short” - Leviathan (1651)

Father of Conservatism - Spearheaded early conservatism as a defender of absolutist government as the only alternative to anarchy and disorder. He portrayed life in a stateless society, the state of nature as a “war against all”

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): (2)

Human Nature:

Extremely negative - humans are individualistic, driven by self-interest, needy, vulnerable, easily led astray & unable to understand the world around them

Society:

Order is key.  Society did not exist before the creation of the state.  The state (& its ruler) brings order and authority.  Before the creation of the state, life was ‘nasty, brutish and short’.

State:

The state arises from a ‘social contract’ between sovereign and subjects.  Subjects cede freedoms to an autocratic monarch to guarantee the rule of law & to avoid ‘a state of war’.

The Economy:

Economic activity is only possible after the creation of the state.  The sovereign brings order and authority, allowing the economy to develop.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): (1)

Traditional Conservative:

• Pragmatic and cautious change

• Tradition and empiricism

“Society is but a contract between the dead, the living and those yet to be born”

Burke’s writing provided the intellectual rationale for a strand of Toryism that became One Nation Conservatism.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): (1)

Human Nature:

Somewhat negative: humans are morally and intellectually fallible.

Society:

Society is like a multifaceted organism.  Communities, traditions, customs & institutions have a symbiotic relationship.  Tradition is highly respected since it represents the accumulated & tested ‘wisdom of the past’.  Society is a partnership between the ‘living, the dead, and those yet unborn’. 

State:

The state emerges and grows like an organism.  Hierarchical in nature, the paternalistic elite rule in the interests of all.  The state should accept cautious necessary change - i.e. ‘change to conserve’ the current society, guided by empiricism.

The Economy:

The economy is subordinate to the need for a stable state / society.  Nevertheless the free market is the natural organic state of an economy, and the state should protect laissez-faire capitalism.

Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990): (1)

One Nation Conservative:

• Change and pragmatism

“Keeping the ship afloat at all costs … using experience to negotiate every storm, stoicism to accept necessary changes of direction … and not fixating on a port that may not exist”

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): (1)

Human Nature:

Somewhat negative - focused on intellectual imperfection within an unpredictable society  Decisions should be grounded in empiricism, not theory or rational thought, since humans lack the capacity to make sense of a complex world.

Society:

Very sceptical of decisions made ideologically or by ‘rationalist’ state leaders, acting on their own reason about how society should be remoulded (e.g. fascism, communism).

State:

The state should be guided by tradition and experience.  Change, if it must occur, should be guided by pragmatism and empiricism to ensure public support.  Highlighted the malleable British parliamentary system as a good example of a system which can change with shifting circumstances.

The Economy:

The economy is subordinate to the need for a stable state / society.  Nevertheless the free market is the natural state of an economy.  State involvement should be limited, pragmatic & moderate.  Avoid ‘rationalistic’ state management of the economy because of failings associated with intellectual imperfection.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982): (1)

New Right - Neoliberal:

• Objectivism

• Economic liberty

• Collectivism

 ‘The small state is the strong state”

Spearheaded the difference between Traditional and the New Right, highlighting this in her work as a key American political thinker.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982): (2)

Human Nature:

More positive - humans are capable of ‘objectivism’ i.e. rational thought and will use this to pursue self-interest (which she saw as a moral virtue).

Society:

Society is about atomistic individualism.   Society is a collection of autonomous individuals motivated by self-fulfilment.  These individuals resist state or societal obligations since they would restrict individual freedoms.  No welfare state.

State:

The state should play a minimal role in the life of the individual.  The state should secure the free market, law & order and national security.

The Economy:

A completely unregulated privatised free-market capitalist system with no state intervention - based on the free (economic) expression of human rationality.

Robert Nozick (1938-2002): (1)

New Right - Neoliberal:

• Minarchism 

• Individual liberty

During the 1970s Nozick emerged as one of the key thinkers of the New Right. His key work Anarchy, State and Utopia 1974, remains a vital reference for modern conservatives.

Robert Nozick (1938-2002): (2)

Human Nature:

More positive - individuals are rational and driven by the idea of self-ownership of their bodies, talent, abilities and labour.

Society:

Society is essentially atomistic - a collection of autonomous individuals with libertarian values.  These individuals resist state or societal obligations as they restrict individual freedom.  No welfare state because it gives others part of the earnings of the sovereign individual

State:

A minimalistic state - the state limited to law and order, enforcement of contracts, and defence of the country. The state cannot treat sovereign individuals as ‘things’ or resources, and people can’t be used to do things against their will.  At times Nozick flirted with, but pulled back from, anarcho-capitalism

The Economy:

A minimal ‘night watchman state’ allows free-market capitalism to run a privatised and deregulated economy.  Humans have the right to enjoy the fruits of their labour without state intervention and should expect to retain what their labour has earned them, rather than being treated like a resource to extract wealth from by a state