6.3 Conservative thinkers Flashcards
1
Q
6
Which branch do each of the key conservative thinkers belong to?
A
- Thomas Hobbes - traditional
- Edmund Burke - traditional
- Michael Oakeshott - traditional
- Ayn Rand - New Right (neo liberal)
- Robert Nozick - New Right (neo-liberal)
Yet ideas of traditional thinkers influenced other branches e.g. Hobbes - neo-con; Burke/Oakeshott - ON
2
Q
5
Describe Hobbes’ order
A
- Society is hierarchal ordered by rank and influence
- Absolute monarchy governs the ‘commonwealth’
- Strong authoritative government in organic framework guarantees equilibrium between order and freedom
- Social contract to prevent ‘state of nature’
- organic society
3
Q
7
Describe Hobbes’ human nature
A
- Pessimistic view
- Humans are irrational
- Cannot understand complexities of modern political systems
- Require practical strategies (e.g. social hierarchy) rather than abstract ideas (e.g. classless society)
- informs trustee model of representation
- Driven by individualistic ‘desire of power’, not communal
- ‘state of nature’
4
Q
4
Describe Hobbes’ views on the social contract
A
- Order only achieved by social contract where individuals cede freedoms to all-powerful sovereign in return for legal and physical protection
- This grants sovereign legitimacy to pass legislation and determine rights of individuals
- Therefore society cannot pre-exist state
- State resulted from social contract - no historical event which created this contract
5
Q
4
Describe Hobbes’ acceptance of a corrupt sovereign
A
- Sovereign not bound by social contract or law
- Recieve obedience of people who cede autonomy in hope that sovereign will maintain order
- Accepts sovereign may behave in corrupt manner
- Yet insists such behaviour is unwise as the removal of individual safety could deprive sovereign of power
6
Q
3
Describe Hobbes’ views on absolute government and sovereign
A
- Best way to avoid disorder in society
- Sovereign controlled all aspects of society (law, religion and parliament) and economy (private property and taxation)
- Sovereign was personification (representation) of state
7
Q
3
Describe Hobbes’ ‘state of nature’
A
- Hypothetical scenario with no authority and security
- Would create perpetual conflict where individuals only cared about self-interest
- In the ‘natural condition of mankind’, humans hold equal ability to kill eachother
8
Q
4
List Hobbes’ key quotes on order
A
- Society without order and sovereign would be a ‘perpetual and restless desire for power’
- ‘a war of all against all’ in the ‘state of nature’
- life without order would be ‘nasty, brutish and short’
- ‘commonwealth’
9
Q
2
List Hobbes’ key quotes on human imperfection
A
- ‘natural condition of mankind’
- Selfish desires of humankind ‘more potent than reason’
10
Q
4
Describe Burke’s organic society
A
- Society not static, but often has to ‘change to conserve’
- Change should be slow and evolutionary
- ‘little platoons’ enable organic change
- noblesse oblige to protect social order
11
Q
2
Describe Burke’s ‘little platoons’
A
- Small communities that retain their own identity
- Bind to enable wider integration into ‘the nation’
12
Q
6
Describe Burke’s tradition
A
- Represents culminated wisdom of past generations and should be respected
- Society is contract between ‘the dead, the living and those yet to be born’ - breaking from Hobbesian social contract
- Consequently, change should be slow and cautious
- Society/state emerges organically and matures into traditions and customs
- Prefers constitutional monarchy, against Hobbes’ preference for absolute monarchy
- Did not support democracy, yet beleived it was unwise to resist it if it was necessary to preserve vital institutions
13
Q
4
Describe Burke’s empiricism
A
- Change should be made on practical experience from past
- Political change should be organic, rather than via revolution
- There is an inherent virtue in common-sense values i.e. the ‘wisdom of unlettered men’
- Trustee model of representation
14
Q
5
Describe the Burkean trustee model of representation
A
- Representatives should make own judgements based on knowledge and experience (empiricism)
- In that way serve best interests of public
- Opposed delegate model
- Opposed referendums
- Tradition of trustees preferable to technocrats
15
Q
5
Describe Burke’s views on noblesse oblige and social order
A
- Society naturally unequal and hierarchal
- Aristocracy should lead social order
- Held paternalistic responsibility to solve weaker elements of society
- Thus maintain equilibrium between order and freedom
- However opposed extension of franchise, fearing mob rule
16
Q
3
Describe Burke’s views on human imperfection
A
- Scope of human reason and understanding is limited, so are more likely to fail than succeed when following rationalistic thoughts
- Therefore change should be gradual and careful
- Yet argues that human nature is more communal (‘little platoons’) and individuals seek happiness, differing from Hobbes
17
Q
4
List Burke’s key quotes on organic change
A
- ‘Change to conserve’
- ‘little platoons’
- Politics should be adjusted to ‘human nature’ and not to ‘human reason’
- a state without some change is ‘without the means of its conservation’
18
Q
2
List Burke’s key quotes on tradition and empiricism
A
- ‘the wisdom of unlettered men’
- ‘society is a contract between the dead, the living and those yet to be born’
19
Q
2
List Burke’s key quotes on hierarchy
A
- ‘true natural aristocracy’
- ‘all men have equal rights, but not to equal things’
20
Q
7
Describe Oakeshott’s human imperfection
A
- Modern society is unpredictable and multifaceted
- Faith in rationalism is therefore misplaced as theories oversimplify complex situations
- Beyond ability of humans to understand true nature of reality
- Utopias unattainable as perfection cannot be created by imperfect societies
- Critical of ON state intervention
- Critical of leader acting on the ‘authority of his own reason’ rather than experience
- ‘Politics of faith’ - decision-making grounded in empiricism and pragmatism, not rationality
21
Q
4
Describe Oakeshott’s ‘politics of scepticism’
A
- Implementation of abstract ideas often leads to unintended negative consequences
- Rationalists underestimate complexity of reality
- Don’t understand that in attempting to imrpove society or economy, they worsen the situation
- Therefore change should be empiricial and cautious - ‘cure is not worse than the disease’
22
Q
2
How do Oakeshott and Hobbes differ on human imperfection?
A
- Oakeshott argues that humans are ‘fragile and fallible’ but capable of benevolence
- Therefore holds less destructive view than Hobbes
23
Q
3
Describe Oakeshott’s pragmatism
A
- Government making decisions rooted on empricism is best placed to serve interests of people
- ‘Politics of scepticism’ - place faith on long-standing traditions and customs
- Politics should not have rigid direction or fixed goal - should be guided by pragmatism
24
Q
2
Describe Oakeshott’s views on organic change
A
- Prefers status quo more than Burke
- Yet accepts needed for change rooted in empricism and pragmatism to maintain tradition
25
Q
3
Describe Oakeshott’s views on tradition
A
- Secularisation leading to adoption of rationalistic ideas as sort of ‘intellectual replacement’
- Supports institutions like HoL and monarchy to provide societal stability
- Change should avoid unproven societies
26
Q
5
List Oakeshott’s key quotes
A
- ‘cure is not worse than the disease’
- ‘intellectual replacement’
- humans are ‘fragile’ and ‘fallible’
- ‘what has stood the test of time is good’
- ‘prefer the tried to untried’
27
Q
2
Describe Rand’s rejection of human imperfection
A
- Individuals are rational - against Trad Con/ON
- Thought religion was deeply irrational
28
Q
5
Describe Rand’s objectivism
A
- Reason forms central basis of human nature, which can be used to gain objective knowledge
- Ethical codes that contradict reality do not exist
- Individuals who experience negative freedom are best able to comprehend reality
- therefore can independently achieve self-realisation and self-fulfilment
- Highest moral purpose is to achieve personal happiness
29
Q
2
What did Rand advocate as a result of objectivism
A
- atomistic society
- Laissez-faire free-market
30
Q
4
Describe Rand’s freedom
A
- Advocated laissez-faire economy
- Roll back state economically and socially
- Indivduals have right to maintain property and income without being taxed
- Includes support of same-sex relationships and abortion
31
Q
3
Describe Rand’s views on an ‘atomistic’ society
A
- Loathed organic society because obligations it demanded from individuals eroded individual freedoms, equating it with collectivism
- Individuals must maintain lives through own efforts
- Indivdiual hard work is the only method to achieve purpose and productivity
32
Q
3
Describe Rand’s opposition to state-sponsored welfarism
A
- State interference a result of a flawed understanding of altruism
- This altruism is evil as it is incompatible with individual freedom and capitalism
- Advocated voluntarism
33
Q
2
Describe Rand’s views on the state
A
- Only moral purpose of state and society is to protect individual rights
- State should be minimal to enforce law and order and contracts
34
Q
4
List Rand’s key quotes
A
- ‘virtue of selfishness’
- altruism is ‘the basic evil’
- ‘atomistic individualism’
- ‘man must be the beneficiary of his own actions’
35
Q
4
Describe Nozick’s libertarianism
A
- Individuals in society cannot be treated as a resource against their will
- State focibly taxing rich violated their intrinsic freedom
- Government had no right to encroach upon rights of individuals by transferring income to others
- Led to 2 broad conclusions
36
Q
2
What concusions did Nozick make on the back of his libertarian beleifs
A
- ‘minarchist’ government - minimal interference in lives of individuals makes for the best society
- state’s primary function is to protect individual human rights
37
Q
3
Outline Nozick’s minarchist government
A
- Very little taxation, no welfare, essentially no laws on human behaviour
- State solely focussed on defence and law and order - limited to ‘narrow functions of force, theft and enforcement’
- State-funded welfare system is ‘legalised theft’ of taxation
38
Q
4
Describe Nozick’s rejection of the social contract
A
- Disagreed with Trad Cons that state held legitimacy to interfere based on hierarchical social contract
- State interference restricted individual freedoms, rather than reinforcing them
- Proposed rights-based libertarian system
- Did not address hierarchal social order, but beleifs suggest preference for social order based on voluntary interactions rather than paternalistic top-down system
39
Q
4
Describe Nozick’s self-ownership
A
- Accepted individual rationalism
- Individuals own their bodies, talents, abilities and labour
- Makes people self-serving in best interests
- Suported legalisation of drugs
40
Q
3
Describe Nozick’s minarchist society
A
- Akin to Rand’s atomistic society
- Communities granted freedom to practise their own particular moral codes
- Rather than have political or religious values imposed upon them by the state (assimilation)
41
Q
3
List Nozick’s key quotes
A
- Taxation is ‘legalised theft’
- ‘narrow functions’ of ‘force, theft, enforcement and so on’
- ‘there are only individual people… with their own lives’
