Conservatism

Question 1

To what extent did
John Locke and
Thomas Hobbes
disagree about the
power of reason?

Answer 1

Locke argued that rational humans are fully capable of persuing their own interests. Argued that in the state of nature people lived fairly and harmoniously.

Hobbes agreed that humans are capable of reason but that they re driven by their emotions and less rational impulses. Hence reason was less powerful

Question 2

What is relativism?
What was the only
right that Hobbes
thought humans could
universally agree on?

Answer 2

The belief that there is no apostle truth or moral standards.

Hobbes argued that things are either good or bad and that this is subjective

Question 3

How, and why, did
Locke and Hobbes
view the state of
nature so differently?

Answer 3

Hobbes argued that the only thing common to all people was a primal fear of death

self preservation was the only thing that people could agree on

people deem things to be good or bad in terms of the impact on their prosperity. Hence there is no self preservation

both agreed that the state of nature is dangerous and a state of law is important

Hobbes argued that a distrust for others stems from the conflict of resources and ends in conflict

Question 4

How did Hobbes
explain the transition
from the state of war,
to a state of law? What
are ‘natural laws’?

Question 5

Why did Locke and
Hobbes’s different
views of the state of
nature lead to very
different conceptions
of state power?

Question 6

Why did Hobbes
favour an absolute
monarchy? What did
he believe to be the
monarch’s primary
responsibility?

Question 7

How did Locke and
Hobbes disagree on
the nature of freedom
and natural rights?

Question 8

Core principles of conservatism

Answer 8

• human imperfection
• tradition
• pragmatism
• organic society
• paternalism
• libertanisatino

Question 9

Human
Imperfection

Question 10

Tradition

Question 11

Pragmatism

Question 12

Organic Society

Question 13

Paternalism

Question 14

Libertarianism

Question 15

Why did Benjamin
Disraeli fear the
growth of two nations?

Question 16

What was the ‘great
problem’ facing
Conservatives aiming
to ‘improve the
condition of the poor’?

Question 17

Why was Disraeli
critical of laissez-faire
economic arguments?

Question 18

What did Disraeli fear
had been lost in the
transition from
feudalism to industrial
capitalism? What does
noblesse oblige mean?

Question 19

What sort of paternal
intervention was
Disraeli in favour of?

Question 20

What does ‘One
Nation’ mean? Why do
conservatives see
themselves as different
to liberals and
socialists?

Question 21

How is the label ‘One
Nation Conservative’
usually used today?

Question 22

What influenced
Harold Macmillan’s
‘Middle Way’?

Question 23

How did Macmillan
view the public
ownership of industry?

Question 24

How interventionist
were Macmillan’s
economic policies?
What was the
National Economic
Development Council?

Question 25

What were Macmillan’s views of the welfare state and redistribution? Why was tackling unemployment his main priority?

Question 26

Why was Macmillan’s time as Housing Minister a good example of his ‘Middle Way’ approach?

Question 27

What economic and social issues helped make New Right ideas more mainstream by the 1970s?

Question 28

Why is the New Right often described as a combination of two separate ideologies?

Question 29

Why did Friedrich Hayek criticise the rational constructivism of One Nation conservatism?

Question 30

What was Hayek’s idea of spontaneous order and what was its appeal to New Right conservatives?

Question 31

Why did Hayek believe state economic intervention to be so harmful?

Question 32

What are some examples of Margaret Thatcher neo-liberal reforms? What arguments were made to support these policies?

Question 33

What are some examples of Margaret Thatcher‘s neo- conservative reforms? What arguments were made to support these policies?

Question 34

Why do some argue that the neo-liberal and neo-conservative elements of the New Right were self- defeating?

Question 35

How did Thatcher challenge these claims? Why did she believe that shrinking the state would help to strengthen society?

Question 36

What is the difference between technical and practical/traditional knowledge according to Oakeshott?

Question 37

Why did Oakeshott believe ideologies to be rooted in tradition?

Question 38

According to Oakeshott, why do rationalists ignore practical knowledge, and why is this a problem?

Question 39

What is the difference between the politics of faith and scepticism? Why should politicians be guided by ‘intimations’ rather than abstract ideas?

Question 40

Why did Oakeshott believe the enfranchisement of women owed more to the politics of scepticism than faith?

Question 41

Why did Oakeshott famously describe political activity as being like sailing?

Question 41

Why did Oakeshott believe that politics should be a ‘conversation’?

Question 42

What are the differences between civil and enterprise associations?

Question 43

Why did Oakeshott argue that “it is reason, not authority, that is destructive of individuality”?

Question 44

How did the post- WWII Labour and One-Nation governments influence Oakeshott’s criticism of rationalism?

Question 45

Why was Oakeshott critical of Friedrich Hayek? In what way does his criticism of rationalism apply to the New Right?

Question 46

Why did Oakeshott believe that to be a conservative meant that you possessed a particular disposition, rather than an ideology?

Question 47

What is altruism?

Question 48

Why did Ayn Rand equate altruism with death? Why did she believe that altruism conflicts with human nature and life?

Question 49

What is ethical egoism? How are Objectivist ethics different to altruism?

Question 50

How does Objectivism differ to hedonism?

Question 51

How did Rand view altruistic virtues like kindness, charity and sacrifice?

Question 52

Why did Rand’s views of human nature lead her to criticise collectivism?

Question 53

Why did Rand believe that society had to prioritise the negative rights of ‘independent thinkers’ & ‘producers’ over the positive rights of ‘second-handers’ & ‘takers’? Why did she consider property rights to be so fundamental?

Question 54

To Rand, what was the purpose of the state? What services should it provide and how should they be funded?

Question 55

What did Rand believe to be so dangerous about the idea of the ‘common good’ or ‘public interest’?

Question 56

How did Rand’s defence of the free market differ to the arguments of many conservatives?

Question 57

How does Robert Nozick open ‘Anarchy, State and Utopia’? What is the central question he sets out to answer?

Question 58

Why did Nozick disagree with the claim that the ‘end can justify the means’? How did Immanuel Kant influence his view of rights and morality?

Question 59

Why did Nozick believe that only by treating rights as ‘side- constraints’, could we respect self-ownership and the separateness of persons?

Question 60

Why did Nozick believe that treating individuals as ends rather than means ruled out paternalism and redistribution?

Question 61

How did Nozick argue that the invisible hand could lead us out of the state of nature? Why is a minimal state preferable to anarchy?

Question 62

Why does Nozick believe that philosophical debates over ‘distributive justice’ are misleading?

Question 63

Why did Nozick believe existing end- result and historical theories of justice to be flawed?

Question 64

How did Nozick use his famous Wilt Chamberlain example to demonstrate his belief that ‘liberty disrupts patterns’?

Question 65

What is Nozick’s entitlement theory of justice? Why did he believe that we should focus on entitlements rather than desert?

Question 66

Why did Nozick believe the minimal state to be inspiring and utopian?

Question 67

Traditional conservatism

Question 68

one nation conservatives

Question 69

new right