Dimensions
152 x 229 x 21mm
In his earlier work, "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 the case for conservatism as the best alternative. Conservatism, he maintains, is concerned with the political arrangements that enable members of a society to live good lives. These political arrangements are based on scepticism 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 condition that vary with societies, and individual conditions which 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.
