Groundwork and Principles for Applied Conservatism

This thesis is a broad survey of conservatism-in-general, written in the immediate context of important conservative institutions being threatened by or having already fallen to radical populism and reactionaryism. The thesis provides groundwork to help establish principles of conservatism (POCs), consistent with Burke and Oakeshott, that might be acceptable to as wide a range of contemporary self-identifying conservatives as possible, and capable of supporting safe and reasonable decisionmaking and action-guidance in a world which does and must constantly change. Ten suggested POCs are derived from detailed surveys of four related but differing conservatisms: ontological conservatism, epistemic conservatism, conservatism in ethics and metaethics, and conservatism in political philosophy. Through these surveys, Ladyman and Ross’ ontic structural realism is proposed as a bridge- builder between religious and non-religious conservatives. Epistemic conservatism is argued to be necessary for all non-circular epistemic inquiry, with responses suggested to Littlejohn’s concerns it may justify horrendously evil ideas and acts. The effective altruism movement is criticised through a conservative lens. The value conservatism believes inheres in the status quo, in traditional knowledge, institutions and conventions, and in scientific method, free markets and democratic elections, is reinforced through the concept of the wisdom of crowds. Conservatism is compared with Hooker’s wary rule consequentialism and Aristotelian virtue ethics, and it is suggested, based on Annas and Lang, that our pursuit of good and evil could be understood as analogous to sporting and artistic endeavour. The surveys identify and the POCs make use of Five Fundamental Human Commonalities, Five Thoroughgoing Ethical Uncertainties and Five Fundamental Obligations of the State. The POCs’ plausibility is demonstrated by application to transatlantic chattel slavery from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries and nationalisation of labour in the UK in 1940. Further applications are suggested, including in ontology, epistemology and ethics, to help resolve very current political and geostrategic issues, and in commercial decisionmaking. While arguments are made why most political decisionmaking should occur through distributed, discursive processes based on the principle of subsidiarity, recommendations are made for how the virtue of prudence, necessary for final decisionmakers including heads of government, could be developed within polities.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Hooton, Matthew Owen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mulgan, Tim

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/72531

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/72531