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Conservatism > Key Thinkers > Flashcards

Key Thinkers Flashcards

1
Q

THOMAS HOBBES

What was the name and date of his book?

A

Leviathan

1651

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2
Q

THOMAS HOBBES

Give 2 key quotations of his and explain what they mean.

A

“war of all against all” - what life is characterised by

“solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” - what life is like

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3
Q

THOMAS HOBBES

What type of conservative was he?

A

Traditional

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4
Q

THOMAS HOBBES

2 key ideas on human nature?

A
  1. needy and vulnerable. cannot understand world around them

e. g. will challenge others out of fear for own safety
e. g. seek reputation for own sake (no one will challenge them)

  1. easily led astray/can be found in ‘natural chaos’. an ordered society would balance the need to lead a free life.
    e. g. in a ‘state of nature’, humans would exhibit ‘restless desire for power’ (“war of all against all”)
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5
Q

THOMAS HOBBES

2 key ideas on the state?

A
  1. government is established by consent of the people
    e. g. social contract (give up all right apart from self-defence)
  2. argued for almost total obedience to absolute government (only alternative to chaos)

e.g. all laws restrained by order and security
or no civil society
to prevent collapse of social order

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6
Q

THOMAS HOBBES

What are his years?

A

1588 - 1679

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7
Q

EDMUND BURKE

What are his years?

A

1729 - 1797

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8
Q

EDMUND BURKE

What is the name and year of his book?

A

Reflections on the Revolution in France

1790

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9
Q

EDMUND BURKE

Give 3 key quotations of Edmund Burke and what they mean.

A

“society is a partnership…between those who are living, dead and those who are to be born.” - establishment

“a state without the means of change is without the means of its conservation”

“little platoon” - society

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10
Q

EDMUND BURKE

What kind of conservative is he?

A

Traditional

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11
Q

EDMUND BURKE

1 key idea on economy?

A

fervent advocate of Adam Smith’s call for free trade

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12
Q

EDMUND BURKE

2 key ideas on society?

A
  1. praised society as “little platoons”
    e. g. multitude of small, diverse, large autonomous communities
  2. endorses tradition (empiricism), linked to idea of organic, gradual change. undertaken with great caution
    e. g. tested wisdom
    e. g. continuity and stability
    e. g. revolution leads to complete breakdown (link to state and reforms)
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13
Q

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

What are his years?

A

1901 - 1990

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14
Q

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

What is the name and what year his book was written?

A

On Being Conservative (1962)

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15
Q

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

Give 2 key quotations and what they mean.

A

“prefer the familiar to the unknown” - conservation

“the art of the possible” - pragmatism

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16
Q

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

What kind of conservative was he?

A

traditional

17
Q

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

2 key ideas on the state?

A
  1. state can only be successful is it take pragmatic approach
    - deliver best interests without overstepping limits
    - maintains social stability with change where necessary (conscious of historical roots)
    - is flexible and shifts dogmatic decision making with rigid theories
  2. view of human imperfection informs his view that the state is there to ‘prevent the bad, not create the good’
18
Q

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

Name 2 ideas on human nature.

A
  1. human imperfection suggests that society is unpredicatble. humans are imperfect but need
    not be pessimistic. most people are ‘fallible but not terrible’ and ‘imperfect but not immoral’
  2. lacking mental faculties
    people’s actions should be guided by pragmatism, rather than by ideology
    e.g. rational attempts to make sense of society inevitably distort and simplify. this is aggravated by human imperfection, people do not have mental faculties to make sense of a complex modern world
19
Q

AYN RAND

What are her years?

A

1905-1982

20
Q

AYN RAND

What is the year and name of her books?

A

The Fountainhead (1943)

Atlas Shrugged (1957)

21
Q

AYN RAND

Give 2 key quotations and their meaning.

A

“fight for capitalism…as a moral issue” - importance of capitalism
“the small state is the strong state” - less state intervention

22
Q

AYN RAND

What type of conservative?

A

one nation conservative (???)

23
Q

AYN RAND

Name 1 idea on human nature.

A
  1. Objectivism
    e. g. libertarian philosophical system that advocates the virtues of rational self-interest
    e. g. this was morally right
24
Q

AYN RAND

Name 2 ideas on society.

A
  1. personal altruism should be rejected
    e. g. individuals should be put first
    e. g. such acts created an ‘artificial’ sense of obligation and expectation
    e. g. did not accord with an individual’s rational self-interest
    e. g. defended right to choose in areas like homosexuality and abortion
  2. atomism
    society is defined by millions of autonomous individuals
    e.g. each independently seeking self-fulfilment and self-realisation
25
Q

AYN RAND

Name 2 ideas for economy.

A
  1. freedom of economy
    e. g. support for completely unregulated, laissez-faire economy
    e. g. compatible with the free expression of human rationality
    e. g. respects individual’s self-interest
26
Q

ROBERT NOZICK

What are his years?

A

1938-2002

27
Q

ROBERT NOZICK

What is the name and year of his book?

A

Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974)

28
Q

ROBERT NOZICK

Give 1 quotation and what idea it links to.

A

“individuals have rights and there are things no person or group may do to them” - libertarianism

29
Q

ROBERT NOZICK

What kind of conservative was he?

A

one nation conservative (???)

30
Q

ROBERT NOZICK

Name 2 ideas about society.

A
  1. Libertarianism
    e.g. based on Kant’s idea that individuals in society cannot be treated as thing, or used against their own will as a resource
    (‘always as a end, never as a means only’)
  2. self-ownership
    e. g. individuals own their own bodies, talents, abilities and labour
    e. g. society predates the state and individuals should determine what is done with that ‘possession’
    e. g. they are free to practice their own particular moral codes and values (updates version of Burke’s ‘little platoons’)
31
Q

ROBERT NOZICK

Name 2 ideas on the state.

A
  1. taxes to fund state welfare programmes are immoral
    - amount to a type of forced labour imposed on individual by the state
    - treat individuals as a means or resource, to further social justice.
  2. the only type of state that can be morally justified is a minimal/’nightwatchman’ state.
    e. g. limited powers to protect those necessary against violence, theft and fraud.
    e. g. growth of welfare states in western Europe fostered dependency culture

Conservatism (6 decks)

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