Thomas Short, Divergent Sources of Conservatism (from Modern Age 44:1, Winter 2002)

We can identify some ancient and medieval thinkers as conservative, e.g., Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, but they did not think of themselves as conservative: they applied no word to their views that could be translated by “conservative.” That word was first applied, by his disciples, to Edmund Burke’s reaction to the radicalism of the French Revolution. Burke’s reaction might be explained by the views and attitudes he expressed in writings, and in political speeches and actions, prior to his Reflections on the Revolution in France. But it is the latter that showed those to be conservative. Beliefs are identifiably conservative only as they are opposed or opposable to radicalism. And radicalism can be traced back only so far: to Rousseau or, I would say, to Descartes, or, some would say, to William of Ockham. If we identify Aristotle’s or St. Thomas’s ideas as conservative, it is because they can be used to justify those sentiments which radicalism outrages.

Dr. Barry Alan Shain, Varieties of Conservatism (from Modern Age 44:1, Winter 2002)

Conservatism, however, demands more than a deep respect for a people’s inherited ways. It also rests on a philosophical rejection of the hubris readily associated with the last years of the Enlightenment. Conservatism reflects a pervasive humility concerning the ability of unaided reason to understand the moral universe and to create appropriate social structures. At its essence, conservatism is shaped by an epistemic stance that embraces traditionalism, not out of a dogmatic love of the past, but out of a radical uncertainty concerning man’s ability to understand complex social systems. As Edmund Burke noted, “it is with infinite caution that any man ought to venture upon pulling down an edifice which has answered in any tolerable degree for ages the common purposes of society, or on building it up again without having models and patterns of approved utility before his eyes.” And, clearly, almost all conservatives accept this moderate skepticism as an essential element of philosophical conservatism.

Of course, there are other essential elements which most conservatives would identify as part of the core holdings of conservatism. They include communalism, localism, familism, a recognition of human depravity, and foundational religiosity. As Russell Kirk observed, “the family, religious association, and local community—these, the conserva­tives insist­ed, cannot be regarded as the external products of man’s thought and behavior; they are essentially prior to the individual and are the indispensable supports of belief and conduct.” And each of these elements can be readily understood as a reflection of the epistemic humility and the distrust of abstract reason at the core of philosophical conservatism. For conservatives, then, most men in order to flourish need others in close proximity to help shape their moral and political environments. Almost all of us, alone, are too weak, selfish, and benighted to live well without the close cooperation of others. Aristotle knew as much. The Christianity that undergirds the moral anthropology of American conservatism teaches the same.