Conservatism Key Thinkers

Who are the Conservatism Key Thinkers?

• Thomas Hobbes

• Edmund Burke

• Michael Oakeshott

• Ayn Rand

• Robert Nozick

What are Thomas Hobbes’ key ideas?

• The Social Contract Theory

• Human nature → “short, nasty, brutish”

• Leviathan

What are Edmund Burke’s key ideas?

• ‘The Reflections of the French Revolution’

• The spirit of revolution should be wiped out

• We should not depend on abstract ideas but on the knowledge of those before us

• Organicism/Pragmatism/Tradition

What are Michael Oakeshott’s key ideas?

• ‘Conservatism is the known to the unknown, the tried to the untried’

• Tradition is the accumulated knowledge of those before us

• Familiarity helps to create a sense of identity

What are Ayn Rand’s key ideas?

• Objectivism: the pursuit of morality through living for yourself/pursuing your own interests

• Formed on the cognition of man

• Condemnation of welfarism as it creates a dependency culture

• ‘Altruism is evil’ as it imposes on freedom

• Free-market capitalism encourages individuality

• Minimal state

What are Robert Nozick’s key ideas?

• Tale of the Slave

• Condemnation of taxes as it imposes forced labour

• Emphasis of self-ownership and property rights

How can past Conservatism Prime Ministers resonate with Conservative key thinkers?

• Disraeli: Reform Acts to combat the divisions of capitalism

• Thatcher: Anti-welfarism, privatisation, Clause 28

• Cameron: Compassionate conservatism