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A Case for Conservatism
John Kekes (Author)
9780801435560
Hardback, published 12 November 1998
256 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.907 kg
A valuable contribution to political theory.... A challenging work. John Kekes's project has been to encourage others to be realistic about what it takes to make good lives for themselves in a troubled, flawed, and apparently contingent universe. Kekes must be lauded for attempting to present a coherent and systematic defense of conservatism. Students with a serious interest in political theory and philosophy would certainly benefit from this slim volume, which... is likely to become a classic in its field. This is a book which... offers a reasoned and often astute defense of a moderate conservatism which deserves to be taken seriously, both by conservatives themselves and their critics.
In his recent book Against Liberalism, philosopher John Kekes argued that liberalism as a political system is doomed to failure by its internal inconsistencies. In this companion volume, he makes a compelling case for conservatism as the best alternative. His is the first systematic description and defense of the basic assumptions underlying conservative thought. Conservatism, Kekes maintains, is concerned with the political arrangements that enable members of a society to live good lives. These political arrangements are based on skepticism about ideologies, pluralism about values, traditionalism about institutions, and pessimism about human perfectibility. The political morality of conservatism requires the protection of universal conditions of all good lives, social conditions that vary with societies, and individual conditions that reflect differences in character and circumstance. Good lives, according to Kekes, depend equally on pursuing possibilities that these conditions establish and on setting limits to their violations. Attempts to make political arrangements reflect these basic tenets of conservatism are unavoidably imperfect. Kekes concludes, however, that they represent a better hope for the future than any other possibility.