What is the conservative right? Counter to political liberalism, conservatism is traditionalism; upholding traditional values and principles; cautious in prompting change yet willing to apply necessary modifications; restraining from needlessly progressing away from a stable standard. That is conservatism in its broadest sense. Conservatism in principally defined by five predominant elements: epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, economics, and personal agency.
In terms of epistemology, religion takes precedence. Religion is a very real aspect of conservatism, though in no is there anything resembling a spiritual state. God is recognized, respected, and honored in conservative society. Fundamentally, it is understood that God is the creator of the universe and the cohesiveness of all being. He created man and directly provided man with the capacity to reason. Thus, human knowledge and understanding was granted to man by God, and so it can be discerned that man’s inalienable rights are also granted by God. God gave man reason, God gave man innate rights. This is the general conservative perspective.
Conservative metaphysics is very important and opens up one of the most fundamental elements to the conservative philosophical system. Conservative metaphysics is the acknowledgement of an objective reality. Objectivity is essential to the conservative understanding of society. And objective view of reality infers that one recognizes the existence of a universally adaptive truth, a genuine and knowable truth; the existence of a basic good and a basic bad. Subjectivity exculpates the individual; it transfers personal responsibility away from the person. What an objective reality inherently means is that an individual’s actions are held against a basic standard, and an individual is personally accountable for his own decisions. This is the fundamental element of conservatism which will be echoed in many other aspects of conservative philosophy.
The ethics of conservatism expressly focuses on self-interest. An individual is an equal entity within greater society. That individual should always pursue the course of action benefiting self best. Essentially, benefiting self is incrementally benefiting the society at large; as a unit if society progresses and becomes better well off, so does the whole of society. This to no extent promotes selfish behavior. Taking care of self with thoroughly good intentions does not stand comparable to greedy selfishness. Intention determines the effect of an individual’s decisions and positive self-sufficiency is detrimental to no person yet it benefits all involved parties. As each member of society takes care of themselves, the net effect culminates in a healthier social setting with less structural divisions and tensions.
Economic conservatism is one of the most politically debated areas of contention. This closely ties into the ethical argument. In any free market economy existing in a healthy, competitive environment, equal opportunity exists. When analyzing the basic principle of economic competition, it can be understood that there will inevitably be winners and losers in the market. Wealth undoubtedly accumulates on only one side. This is not an unfair or imbalanced consequence. As previously stated, opportunity exists equally though the results cannot plausibly guaranteed equal. An individual in a healthy capitalistic economy should earn his share of economic well-being and nothing more or less than his work earns him. This is the reality of work and pay in the practical world. Conservatism emphasizes self-accountability, in this case, economic self-accountability.
The final aspect of conservatism, which has been encompassed in many of the other elements, is personal agency. This is the recognition of freewill and the rejection of determinism. Determinism is the byproduct of mid-twentieth century Freudian psychology. Freud established three basic categories of determinism: genetic determinism, psychic determinism, and environmental determinism. Genetic determinism assumes that much of what we do and think is predetermined by our genetic identity. This essentially passes on responsibility to past ancestry. Psychic determinism states that ones upbringing determines many of our decisions to do certain things. Here, nurture is to blame for ones problems. Finally, environmental determinism explains how ones external environment and atmosphere strongly determine aspects of ones life. Conservatism completely rejects all aspects of the theory of determinism. Self-accountability is again the recurring theme; the freewill of an individual is emphasized and determinism is not thought to determine anything. To elaborate, determinism does not thoroughly determine any aspect of anyone’s life. It is true however, that external elements may influence, but to no extent do they absolutely determine our lives. Self is supreme over all other elements and in its most basic level, the stimulus-response paradigm points to self as the effector of any consequent decisions. An individual decides the response to any given stimulus and each individual possesses the innate capacity to reason intelligently. There is no pragmatic reason to pass on responsibility or blame an external device; self-accountability remains key.
Conservatism values what is present and what is possible. It values traditions and principals. It is optimistic about the human individual. It recognizes differences present within society today while at the same time emphasizing the relative equality of opportunity. Secularity is not recognized because a spiritual social aspect is an innate characteristic of an individual and his life. Ones situation in life is a direct product of ones personal decision making. Thus, the most important element, which is encompassed in some regard in all five tenets, is self-accountability. This is conservatism, the philosophical system of conservatism.
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