I'll bet that 90% of the people who think of themselves as conservative don't know the principles upon which conservatism is founded.
For most conservatives the one fundamental belief is in the existence of an objective and transcendental moral code.
That's fine, but conservatives immediately plunge into some doubt about how, exactly, mere humans can apprehend this transcendental moral code.
Some conservatives say that we apprehend it entirely through revelation; others say through reason; and others says through the distillation of thousands of years of experience.
It's upon foundations such as this that conservatives develop their approach to secular problems. My synopsis of the intellectual foundations of conservatism appear below,
THE INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF CONSERVATISM
Conservatives are famous for having three simple and understandable principles: limited government, low taxes and strong defense. But these principles are based on a more fundamental understanding of reality, i.e., how the world is and how it came to be this way. There are theoretical reasons why limited government, low taxes and strong defense are good things. These theoretical reasons have to do with conservatives’ view of God and man.
Adam Meyerson [Heritage Foundation] identified freedom and responsibility as the main tenets of modern conservatism.
George N. Nash has identified at least three different types of conservatives: the libertarians, who are primarily interested in individuality and freedom; traditionalists, who are primarily interested in morals and community, and; former communists who turned against centralized government. Buckley and Kesler add Neo-conservatives to that mix.
Nash’s three types have found common agreement on the following;
- Western civilization is primarily Christian civilization.
- Western civilization began to disintegrate sometime between the 13th and 18th century.
- Relativism and mass man have replaced order and aristocracy during that disintegration.
- Conservatives are united in their opposition to liberalism and intrusive government and want to return society to the way it was before the disintegration.
As Frank Meyer has said:
...the Christian understanding of the nature and destiny of man, which is the foundation of Western Civilization, is always and everywhere what conservatives strive to conserve. [Nash, Page162]
Jerry Z. Muller, however, is of the opinion that conservatives primarily become energized when traditions are threatened and have typically stood against changes they think are inimical to the bases of a good society.
In a review of intellectual conservative writing we have found that the following three postulates emerge as the fundamental conservative beliefs.
(1) Belief in a Transcendental Moral Order at the Heart of Reality
- God has created a "transcendental moral order or code."
- God works through human history to reveal his moral order through both "right reason" and revelation.
(2) Belief That Man’s Nature Is Flawed By Evil And Ignorance
- Man’s nature is evil, low and base.
- Society and it’s institutions must restrain man’s base nature
(3) Belief In Simple, Supernatural Cause
- An invisible hand guides the free market.
- Wise tradition is distilled from thousands of years of human experience
Problems With The Integration Of Conservative Beliefs
Unfortunately for conservatives their basic beliefs don’t fit together. If we pursue the logic of one belief it eventually has a problem with another belief.
To cite one example: If man’s nature is evil, low and base how can conservatives imagine that the free market could be free of corruption and other
evils? How can we have a just government and a just society given the evil nature of man?
Intellectual conservatives are aware of the problems, which are generated by the difference in viewpoints between libertarians and traditionalists.
A debate was carried on for years after the end of World War II about these contradictions and in the early 1960s Frank S. Meyer, an editor at National Review, proposed a doctrine of "fusionism," which called for libertarian means to achieve traditionalist ends, or "reason operating within tradition".
Ronald Reagan adopted Meyer’s fusionism for his own and, we believe, ushered in the era of "populist conservatism."
We believe that many populist conservatives are unaware of the inherent contradictions between the pieces of their philosophy.
More to come.