Conservatism 1

Peter King
Three lectures:
1. What is conservatism?

2. Conservatism in the UK

3. Extreme forms and arguments

against
What is conservatism?
The most successful political
ideology?

Long history Plato, Burke, Hegel,

Nietzsche

But only relatively recently labelled

Is it an ideology?
Conservatism is different from other
ideologies

Not a set of prescriptions or beliefs but a

way of looking at the world and
addressing problems

More of a disposition but this is

ideological
Defining conservatism
We are part of some pre-existing social
order

It is not just ours but also belongs to

those who came before and those who
will come after

Burke: society is made up of not just the

living but the dead and the unborn
Defining conservatism
Conservatives are opposed to change

They seek to conserve

Salisbury aim was to leave Britain

exactly as he found it
What it is: Quinton (1993)
Tradition preserve and protect key
institutions and ways of life

Scepticism there are limits to what we

can know and we should not act rashly

Organicism we are part of something

bigger than ourselves
What it is: Kekes (1998)
Scepticism - we seek to base political arrangements
on a rational basis, but appreciates the limits of
reason anti-utopian

Pluralism there may be different traditions,

institutions and customs that lead to the good life

Traditionalism we seek to protect those institutions

which allow individual autonomy to flourish. This
implies the limiting of governments authority to
interfere with these institutions

Pessimism to guard against false hopes ands

rejects the idea of human perfectibility
What it is: Muller (1997)
A belief in human imperfection

Epistemological modesty there are limits to human knowledge

Dependence on institutions with their own rules, norms, restraints and

sanctions (P. 11)

Custom, habit and prejudice human beings rely on customary rules based
on historical experience rather than continually reinventing social rules

Historicism and particularism institutions and social rules will be particular

to a society. There are no universal models, but rather a presumption that
what stands the test of time must be right for that situation

Anti-contractualism and a belief in non-voluntary duties, allegiances and

obligations

The social utility of religion

Burke: the greatest
conservative?
Edmund Burke: Anglo-Irish
parliamentarian and writer; 1729-
1797

No system

Reactive the French Revolution

Burke on change
A state without the means of some change is without
the means of its conservation. Without such means it
might even risqu the loss of that part of the
constitution which it wished the most religiously to
preserve. The two principles of conservation and
correction operated strongly at the two critical periods
of the restoration and Revolution, when England found
itself without a king. At both those periods the nation
had lost the bond of union in their antient edifice; they
did not, however, dissolve the whole fabric. On the
contrary, in both cases they regenerated the deficient
part of the old constitution through the parts which
were not impaired. They kept the old parts exactly as
they were, that the part recovered might be suited to
them. (Burke, 1999, pp, 108-9)
Burke on society
To be attached to the subdivision, to
love the little platoon we belong to in
society, is the first principle (the germ
as it were) of public affections. It is the
first link in the series by which we
proceed towards a love to our country
and to mankind. (1999, pp. 136-7)
Burke on progress in politics
We know that we have made no
discoveries, and we think that no
discoveries are to be made, in morality; nor
many in the great principles of government,
nor in the ideas of liberty, which were
understood long before we were born,
altogether as well as they will be after the
grave has heaped its mould upon our
presumption, and the silent tomb shall have
imposed its law on our pert loquacity.
(Burke, 1999, p. 181, original emphasis)
Conclusion
Against progress

Change only to correct

Pragmatic no fixed positions or

dogmas
Further reading
Burke, E (1999) Select Works of Edmund Burke, Volume 2:
Reflections on the Revolution in France, Indianapolis,
Liberty Fund.

Kekes, J (1998) A Case for Conservatism, Ithaca, Cornell

University Press.

Quinton, A. (1993) Conservatism, in Goodin, P and Pettit, P

(Eds.): A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy,
Oxford, Blackwell,
pp. 244-68.

Scruton, R. (2001) The Meaning of Conservatism, third

edition,
Basingstoke, Palgrave.