Key Conservative Thinkers

Question 1

What are Thomas Hobbes’ views on human nature? (3) - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 1

Hobbes viewed human nature sceptically, believing them to be self-seeking, nasty and selfish individuals, although they still possessed inherent rationality. Humans wanted security to maintain the state of society.

Question 2

What are Hobbesian views on the economy? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 2

The state has a role to create an ordered society using its authority in order to develop constructive and positive economic activity as a result.

Question 3

What are Hobbesian views on the state? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 3

Hobbes believed that the state should be allowed autocratic rule in order to limit conflict between groups and create stability and order. The parameters of the state’s power should be set out by a ‘social contract’ in which the state offers security and protection in return for the giving up of personal liberty to allow legislative powers.

Question 4

What are Hobbesian views on society? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 4

Hobbes believes that society DID NOT predate the state, instead that prior to the creation of a state, a nasty and brutish state of nature existed where humans did not cooperate. The state provides structure and creates order for human affairs.

Question 5

What are Burke’s beliefs on human nature? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 5

Burke held especially negative beliefs on human nature, stressing how mankind has intellectual, psychological and moral imperfections. Refused an idealistic view on society, with his views providing the basis for conservatism’s pessimistic view of human nature.

Question 6

What are Burke’s views on the economy? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 6

Burke believed in the benefits of laissez-faire economics and open markets through which people could create prosperity and wealth as a result of their own enterprise. Major supporter of capitalism.

Question 7

What are Burke’s beliefs on the state? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 7

Burke believed in class-based and autocratic governments, with a ruling aristocracy supposed to be the natural leaders of the country. Society should be governed in the interests of all by the aristocracy and that the state should preserve existing institutions rather than being a force for change and progression.

Question 8

What are Burke’s beliefs on society? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 8

Burke thought society should be grounded in tradition and based on empirical evidence to maintain social structures and ensure stability. A strong social hierarchy should be established and society should develop organically rather than be engineered based on ideology.

Question 9

What are Oakeshott’s views on human nature? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 9

Oakeshott wished to qualify humanity’s moral, intellectual and psychological imperfections to be of reduced significance than what Burke and Hobbes stated. Humans can bring about success and progression, with Oakeshott having a more positive view of human nature.

Question 10

What are Oakeshott’s views on the economy? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 10

Oakeshott had a cautious attitude towards the free-market, recognising their volatility and their potential for harm. He favoured pragmatic and sporadic regulation of the economy in order to safeguard the economy and prevent hardship.

Question 11

What are Oakeshott’s views on the state? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 11

Oakeshott believed in the state being a protector of the people rather than being a body aiming to achieve progression. The state should ‘prevent the bad rather than create the good.’ ‘We sail a boundless sea with no appointed destination,’ and government should ‘keep the ship afloat at all costs.’

Question 12

What are Oakeshott’s beliefs on society? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 12

Oakeshott was a believer in localism (as was Burke through his idea of ‘Little Platoons’), arguing that the world was too large to comprehend therefore calling on people to take fulfilment from their surroundings rather than attempting to understand it as a whole.

Question 13

What are Nozick’s views on human nature? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 13

Nozick believed humans to be self-determining and rational, taking a hugely optimistic view of human nature. As a result, they should be allowed maximum individual liberty to develop their own talents without interference by other factors.

Question 14

What are Nozick’s views on the economy? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 14

Nozick believed that individuals should be permitted to pursue their own economic interests without being controlled by government economic policies. The state should be minarchist, being dominated by private enterprises rather than state run businesses.

Question 15

What are Nozick’s views on the state? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 15

Nozick believed that the state’s purpose was to promote and ensure individual liberty, and to do so it should be minimal. States should not offer excess welfare, or else risk promoting a dependency culture.

Question 16

What are Nozick’s views on society? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 16

Society predates the state according to Nozick, with formal authority needing to be conceded by the people for legislative purposes in order to maintain order. Similar views to Hobbes as shown through his ‘nasty, brutish and short’ state of nature.

Question 17

What are Ayn Rand’s views on human nature? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 17

Rand believed that humans are driven by intrinsic ingenuity and personal genius instead of state-sponsored schemes. Humans should be solely guided by self-fulfilment and self-interest, rather than being concerned with the needs of society as a whole.

Question 18

What are Rand’s economic beliefs? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 18

Rand’s economic beliefs are rooted in laissez-faire economics through her belief in objectivism. She called for reduced welfare spending, instead wishing for individuals to look after their own interests without a state acting as a safety net.

Question 19

What are Rand’s beliefs on the state? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 19

Rand thought that the state should act as a night-watchman (as seen in strands of classical liberalism), only providing basic services to maintain defence and order. It should accept that individuals know best how to control their own affairs rather than intervening through welfare provisions.

Question 20

What are Rand’s beliefs on society? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 20

Rand thought that society was made up of atomised and separate individuals rather than collective groups which are interlinked and rely upon each other. Society is a collection of individuals pursuing their own goals rather than concerning themselves with the business of others.

Question 21

What did Hobbes’ social contract entail? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 21

The social contract of Hobbes entailed a relationship between a sovereign, authoritarian state and the governed, through which the governed would relinquish some of their own personal liberty to allow the government to legislate to create security and stability for the populace.

Question 22

Why did the creation of a state prompt the creation of a society in the mind of Hobbes? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 22

Hobbes believed that without a state to mediate between conflicts, people would fight one another and be plagued by conflict. Upon the creation of a state to resolve conflicts, this would permit cooperation and positive relations between people which would constitute a society.

Question 23

Why is Hobbes’ view on human nature complicated and multi-faceted? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 23

Hobbes believed that humans were incredibly selfish (and at times cruel) individuals, yet that they also had an inherent rationality which would result in them understanding the benefits of a social contract under which they would submit to an authoritarian government.

Question 24

Why did Burke have such a great emphasis on empiricism? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 24

Burke held such a great belief in empiricism as it reflected society as it is, rather than unrealistic and radical desires for what society could be.

Question 25

Why was Burke so fiercely critical of the French Revolution? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 25

Burke disapproved heavily of the French Revolution due to its discarding of an aristocratic and traditional society. It was radical change based on ideals rather than rational and achievable change, something which Burke despised. Burke also believed in pragmatic and cautious change, rather than the radical upheaval shown in France.

Question 26

Why did Burke’s belief in organic society develop his views on the French Revolution? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 26

Burke believed that society would develop, evolve and exist naturally, and that any attempts to manually alter society would be artificial and unsuccessful. This therefore meant that any changes to society in France, where a long-standing social system was being abolished, was a specific example of the dismantling of organic society.

Question 27

Explain Burke’s belief in localism. What did this mean in relation to Burke’s views on the state? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 27

Burke believed that society operated in small, localised communities, referred to by him as ‘little platoons’. This meant that Burke opposed a highly centralised state, instead believing that the state should be rooted in communities throughout the state.

Question 28

Why is Oakeshott’s perspective on human nature unique among conservatives? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 28

Oakeshott sought to portray a much more positive view of humans through his perspectives on human nature by recognising our fallibility, yet also recognising many positives of humanity. He believed that humans were capable of achieving ‘pleasure and improvement through everyday life.’

Question 29

How did Oakeshott phrase the idea that the state should be used for stability? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 29

Oakeshott argued that the state existed to ‘prevent the bad rather than create the good,’ as well as that the role of government is to ‘keep the ship afloat at all costs’ amid a ‘boundless sea with no appointed destination.’

Question 30

What is Nozick’s belief in minarchism? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 30

The minarchist mindset is one which does not favour any state control over industry or business, instead outsourcing these to private tender. The state should only oversee basic services.

Question 31

Why does Nozick’s tendency towards libertarianism distance himself from the new right? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 31

Libertarian views, such as those held by Nozick, are increasingly supportive of a permissive society and progressive social values such as homosexuality, abortion and multiculturalism. This is in opposition to the socially conservative neo-conservative branch of the new right which wishes to maintain traditional social values.

Question 32

What is Nozick’s attitude to taxation? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 32

Nozick was fiercely neo-liberal in his views on tax, stating that ‘tax, for the most part, is theft.’ Individuals should be able to control their own affairs without the influence (or interference) of government.

Question 33

What idea do both Nozick and Burke share? How do their interpretations of this idea vary? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 33

Nozick and Burke both strongly believe in localised society, referred to by Burke as ‘little platoons’. Burke believed in localised communities as this was seen to have been the ideal manifestation of society, whereas Nozick thought that local community would allow individual social cultures and attitudes to develop, something which contrasts with Burke’s view on traditional social values.

Question 34

What is Rand’s belief in objectivism? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 34

Objectivism is Rand’s belief that humans should be guided and driven by self-interests and rational self-fulfilment rather than the needs of others. They should pursue whatever best helps them rather than having focus on other individuals.

Question 35

What Rand quote outlined her ideal type of state? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 35

Rand claimed that ‘the small state is the strong state’, outlining her belief that the state should remain free from interference in the lives of individuals.

Question 36

What were Rand’s social ideas? - Key Conservative Thinkers

Answer 36

Rand’s social ideas were incredibly libertarian (similar to Nozick), with this taking the view that individuals should have ‘the right to choose’ on social issues.