Conservatism Burke to Nozick to Blair?

by Honderich, Ted

• ISBN13: 9780745321301
• ISBN10: 0745321305
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-01
• Publisher: Pluto Press

Summary

This is a new edition of a classic work by one of the world's leading progressive political philosophers. Ted Honderich examines ideology and reality in British and American politics in order to establish the true distinctions of conservatism. Conservatives often claim to believe in reform, but not change, to rely on instinct rather than abstract theories. So what is the conservative rationale? Does conservatism have a philosophical founding principle that unifies it? Ted Honderich's search for the fundamental principle of conservatism is an enlightening one. He examines influential thinkers in the conservative tradition, from Edmund Burke and Adam Smith to Michael Oakeshott and Robert Nozick. He brings rigorous analytic philosophy to bear on the Republican party in the United States, and the Conservative party and the New Labour party in Britain. This lucid book, written with wit and clarity, is fully revised and updated in order to give a rigorous and complete analysis of conservatism up to the American election of 2004. Honderich's subtle analysis is not without surprises: the book will continue to be of interest to all students of politics, and anyone who wants a broader understanding of what today's politicians owe to the conservative tradition.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(5)
1 Change and Reform	6	(26)
A Tradition Against Change?	6	(4)
Reform, Not Change - Burke	10	(5)
Oakeshott's and Other Ideas	15	(7)
Distinctions and Rationale	22	(2)
New Labour	24	(8)
2 Theory, Other Thinking, Incentives	32	(37)
Bad Thinking	32	(4)
Good Thinking	36	(5)
Time-Tested Not Theoretical	41	(5)
Different Tests of Time	46	(5)
Empirical Not Theoretical, a Plain Fact	51	(5)
Values and Rationale	56	(5)
New Government	61	(8)
3 Human Nature, Dealing With It	69	(44)
A Bundle of Ideas about Us	69	(10)
Creatures of Society, and a Conception of Human Nature	79	(4)
A Plain Idea	83	(4)
Low Characters, and Order in Society	87	(7)
Low Characters, and Incentives Again	94	(6)
Not Determinism, but Free Will	100	(6)
New Moral and Other Purposes	106	(7)
4 Freedoms	113	(49)
Private-Property Freedom	113	(6)
Conservative Private-Property Freedom	119	(6)
Market Freedom, etc.	125	(4)
Declaration, Equality, Incentive	129	(5)
The Hidden-Hand Vindication	134	(5)
Non-Economic Arguments	139	(8)
Mixing Labour, Transferring	147	(4)
Social and Civil Freedoms	151	(5)
Hope, New Realisms	156	(6)
5 Government	162	(30)
Democracy	162	(7)
Property, Aristocracy, Balance	169	(5)
Constitutionalism, Revolution, International Relations, War	174	(6)
Authoritarianism, Fascism	180	(4)
Rationale, Backward Glance	184	(3)
New and Old Democracy, 9/11	187	(5)
6 Society	192	(27)
The Organic Society	192	(4)
A Thing, a Whole, Personal	196	(4)
A Tree, Inheritance, God, a Large Friend	200	(4)
Racial and Cultural Groups	204	(9)
Not So New Labour	213	(6)
7 Equalities	219	(51)
A Mixed Bag of Equalities	219	(12)
Equality of Results	231	(2)
Assorted Objections to Equality of Results	233	(6)
Liberty Objections to Equality of Results	239	(7)
The General Good of Inequalities Again	246	(9)
The Mere Relativities or Irrationality Objection	255	(4)
New Labour's American War	259	(11)
8 Desert, Conclusions	270	(43)
The Distinctions and Their Problem	270	(7)
Desert the Rationale?	277	(6)
Obstacles to the Idea of Desert	283	(11)
The Principle of Humanity	294	(7)
The Rationale of Conservatism	301	(2)
The Nature of New Labour	303	(10)
Acknowledgements	313	(1)
Notes	314	(15)
Index	329