CONSERVATISM - Key thinkers: Burke and Hobbes Flashcards
HOBBES
What is his most influential work?
Leviathan 1651
This was a statement of why everyone should always obey the government, regardless of how ineffective it was, to avoid chaos and bloodshed.
HOBBES
Leviathan - What is the view of Human nature?
Humans are imperfect because we are psychologically insecure and dependent, continually seeking security and stability, morally imperfect, and intellectually limited.
HOBBES
Leviathan - What is the state of nature?
The state of nature is a hypothetical place prior to the existence of societies.
HOBBES
Leviathan - Explore the birth of the state
- State of nature = scarce resources and ruthless self-interest.
- Humans were somewhat rational and would realise the state of nature was hostile.
- They would agree to a social contract.
- This social contract would mean individuals would render to a sovereign state the right to make laws which would allow law + security absent in the state of nature. This needed to be autocratic.
HOBBES
Summary - Human Nature
QU - ‘… of … against …’
Pessimistic, because humans are imperfect, selfish, greedy, and individualistic.
Left to our own devices, humans would be in continual chaos in a:
‘war of all against all’
HOBBES
Summary - Society
QU - ‘solitary, ______, nasty, _____, brutish, and ____’
SCT suggested that society did not exist before the creation of the state.
Humans possess rationality and so they realised they needed a ruler to maintain order because otherwise, life would be:
‘…solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’
HOBBES
Summary - State
Used the SCT to show that an agreement was needed between state and subjects.
State must maintain law and order - this is the basis of authoritarian rule by the state.
Subjects have unqualified duty to obey the state, this will satisfy the basic need for security.
HOBBES
Summary - Economy
He wrote before the development of Capitalism.
He simply believed that without firm laws, the economy would not develop, because it is the stability provided that allows commerce to proceed in an orderly fashion.
BURKE
Key work
Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790
Basically discusses how revolutionary change, carried out in one violent surge, risked the overthrow of essential elements of society that survived for centuries.
BURKE
Revolution - Views on American Revolution
1765
Appealed for peace and reconciliation with the American colonies
BURKE
Revolution - Views on French Revolution
1790
Burke initially supported the French but when violence grew, he believed it was an attack on the crown, church, and aristocracy.
This was until the Versailles women’s march.
He was critical of the execution of the king and the French opposition to religion.
BURKE
Revolution - Views on Glorious Revolution
1688
He believed this was the right revolution because it returned the correct balance between monarchy and government.
He believed this revolution merely reasserted long-lasting traditions from the past e.g., the right of people to select who governs them.
BURKE
Key ideas - Tradition
QU - ‘We owe an implicit…’
‘We owe an implicit reverence to all the institutions of our ancestors’
BURKE
Key ideas - Hierarchy
QU - ‘Good order…’
‘Good order is the foundation of all good things’
BURKE
Revolution - binding nature of the social contract
He believed that legal precedents established over centuries are the best foundations of government.
Past experience > abstract ideals
The social contract must generationally binding between future generations, current generations, and past generations.
