Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Conservatism: Conservatism is a political and social ideology favoring traditional values, institutions, and gradual societal change. It emphasizes the preservation of established customs, institutions, and principles, advocating for limited government intervention, free markets, and the importance of individual responsibility._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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John Kekes on Conservatism - Dictionary of Arguments
Gaus I 131 Conservatism/Kekes/Gaus: Conservatism (...), has different versions, partly because conservatives often disagree with each other about the particular political arrangements that ought to be conserved. There is no disagreement among them, however, that the reasons for or against those arrangements are to be found in the history of the society whose arrangements they are. ConservatismVsContractualism: This commits conservatives to denying that the reasons are to be derived from a hypothetical contract, or from an imagined ideal order, or from what is supposed to be beneficial for the whole of humanity. Questions for conservatism: - To what extent should political arrangements be based on history? - How does the diversity of values affect political arrangements? - What should be the relation between individual autonomy and social authority? - How should political arrangements respond to the prevalence of evil? >Absolutism/Kekes, >Values/Relativism. Gaus I 138 Conservatism on evil: Conservatism has been called the politics of imperfection (O'Sullivan, 1976(1): ch. 10; Quinton, 1978(2)). This is in some ways an apt characterization, but it is misleading in others. It rightly suggests that conservatives reject the idea of human perfectibility. (For the history of the idea, see Passmore, 1970(3); Kekes, 1997(4).) Yet it is too sanguine because it implies that, apart from some imperfections, the human condition is by and large all right. But it is worse than a bad joke to regard as mere imperfections war, genocide, tyranny, torture, terrorism, the drug trade, concentration camps, racism, the murder of religious and political opponents, easily avoidable epidemics and starvation, and other familiar and widespread evils. Conservatives are much more impressed by the prevalence of evil than this label implies. If evil is understood as serious unjustified harm caused by human beings, then the conservative view is that the prevalence of evil is a permanent condition that cannot be significantly altered. >Human Nature/Conservatism. 1. O'Sullivan, Noel (1976) Conservatism. New York: St Martin's. 2. Quinton, Anthony (1978) The Politics of Imperfection. London: Faber and Faber. 3. Passmore, John (1970) The Perfectibility of Man. London: Duckworth. 4. Kekes, John (1997) Against Liberalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Kekes, John 2004. „Conservtive Theories“. In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications_____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Kekes, John Gaus I Gerald F. Gaus Chandran Kukathas Handbook of Political Theory London 2004 |
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