Review of John Kekes' *A Case for Conservatism*.

In Conservatism Redefined, Patrick Garry examines how Conservatives dug themselves into this hole, and how they can climb out.

What follows here is the first chapter, 'Change and Reform', of a book that inquires into the distinctions and rationale of the political tradition of conservatism. The book, now much enlarged and revised, was originally Conservatism, published in 1989 as a contribution to an election. Now, in particular, each chapter ends with a sizeable section on what replaced the Labour Party in Britain, the New Labour Party. For good measure, the final section of the second chapter, partly on something known (...) as The Third Way, is added to the final section of the first chapter below. To the book's progress towards finding the rationale of the tradition of conservatism, as you will anticipate, is added progress towards deciding on the nature of New Labour. An actual analysis of the ideology and reality of the tradition of conservatism is of use in deciding whether New Labour is in it, and maybe a start towards answering the question of New Labour's place in history. The other chapters, after the first one on change and reform: Theory, Other Thinking, Incentives; Human Nature, Dealing With It; Freedoms; Government; Societies; Equalities; Desert, Conclusions. The book is published by the estimable Pluto Press . -------------------------. (shrink)

In his most recent works, John Gray attempts to achieve two things: to refute the universalist tendencies of modern liberalism and to propose an alternative in the form of postmodern liberal conservatism. While largely supportive of the first, this paper is critical of the second undertaking, which seems a dubious attempt to synthesize postmodern liberal anthropology with a conservative conception of the social order.

I present a problem for a prominent kind of conservatism, viz., the combination of traditional moral & religious values, patriotic nationalism, and libertarian capitalism. The problem is that these elements sometimes conflict. In particular, I show how libertarian capitalism and patriotic nationalism conflict via a scenario in which the thing that libertarian capitalists love – unregulated market activity – threatens what American patriots love – a strong, independent America. Unrestricted libertarian rights to buy and sell land would permit the sale (...) of all American territory by private individuals to foreign powers. Patriotic nationalists regard this as outrageous, but libertarian capitalists cannot refuse it. (shrink)

While contemporary readers may find what appear to be appealing streaks of liberalism in Montaigne's 'Essays', I argue that a more careful analysis suggests that Montaigne's overall stance is quietistic and conservative. To help support this claim I offer a close reading of 'Essays' III.11 ("Of Cripples"), where Montaigne offers his famous critique of the witch trials of early modern Europe. Once Montaigne's objections to the witch trials are properly understood, we see that Montaigne did not seriously or consistently dispute (...) the church's authority in political matters, though certain undeveloped seeds of liberalism do leave an unresolved tension in his writings. (shrink)

Despite commitments to claims about the welfare-enhancing superiority of art-interested ways of life implicit in much of their work, aestheticians have shown little interest in explicitly bringing their discipline to bear on issues at the intersection of ethics, aesthetics, and politics. Roger Scruton’s work on culture bucks that trend, but few have contributed to the discussion he initiated. After an extended treatment of one of many possible examples showing that aesthetics-related matters can and do bear significantly on social and political (...) issues, I present key components of Scruton’s brand of cultural conservatism and explore one way of working out some of the details, in an attempt to show that the kinds of off-putting unwieldiness and putative sociopolitical dubiousness from which ambivalence toward issues at the intersection stems might be satisfactorily dealt with. (shrink)