Hume's Conservatism

Abstract

Hume’s Conservatism DONALD W. LIVINGSTON Hume’s political philosophy has generally been recognized as a form of conservatism, but its precise nature has yet to be stated. In this paper, I shall attempt a description of Hume’s conservatism, the place it has in the history of conservatism, and how it is logically connected to his main philosophical doctrines of knowledge and existence. I The first barrier to appreciating Hume’s conservatism is the term ‘conservatism’ itself. Partisan concepts like “liberalism,” “conser­ vatism,” “Marxism,” and “Christianity” are notoriously difficult to analyze not only because they have a history which changes but be­ cause they are partisan concepts, the understanding of which can hardly be free of value judgments. In understanding such terms, we must take account of what partisans think they mean by them as well as what the terms may be taken to mean on the basis of what partisans have actually done. To appreciate a partisan concept, then, we must take up both an internal partisan point of view and an external evalua­ tive point of view. The difficulty in achieving a just appreciation of such concepts lies not so much in making the value judgment appro­ 213 214 / DONALD W. LIVINGSTON priate to the external point of view but in taking account of the partisan point of view. Conservatism more than other partisan con­ cepts has not been appreciated from the internal point of view perhaps because, unlike other partisan concepts, it does not bear its minimal meaning on its face. The term ‘Marxism’, whatever it may mean, has to do with the teachings of Marx, ‘Christianity’ with the teachings of Christ, and ‘liberalism’ with a doctrine of liberty. But the term ‘con­ servatism’ appears to be vacuous, suggesting no substantial idea. It is for this reason, perhaps, that ‘conservatism’ is usually defined as an attitude or disposition: a conservative is one who has a disposition to defend the status quo and to look with suspicion on any significant change in the social and political order. But this definition applies to any ideology whatsoever: Marxists and Liberals in power, for instance, have a disposition to defend the status quo and to look with suspicion on any significant change in the going social and political order. More­ over, the history of self-professed conservatives shows that they are guided by a body of ideas and that they are capable of reformist and even radical action. So to appreciate the conservative mind and how Hume is connected to it, we must try to understand the ideas which conservatives think guide their own thought and action. I shall begin with a statement by a contemporary Austrian conserva­ tive, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, who views conservatism as a resist­ ance to what J. L. Talmon has called “totalitarian democracy,” a turn of mind that it is convenient to date with the French Revolution. Kuehnelt-Leddihn writes: .. . the roots of the evil are historically-genetically the same all over the Western World. The fatal year is 1789, and the symbol of iniquity is the Jacobin Cap. Its heresy is the denial of personality and of personal liberty. Its concrete realizations are Jacobin mass democracy, all forms of national collectivism and statism, Marxism producing socialism and communism, fascism, and national socialism, leftism in all its modem guises and manL festations to which in America the good term “liberalism,” perversely enough, is being applied.1 Although this particular manifestation of the conservative mind is shaped by twentieth-century conditions, it is essentially the mind of Edmund Burke who is usually considered the founder of modem con­ Hume's Conservatism I 215 servatism. Conservatism so understood contains two important fea­ tures: (1) it is a historical conception based on a doctrine of catas­ trophe, the fatal event being the French Revolution and the movements to which it allegedly gave rise. So conceived, conser­ vatism is not a perennial outlook on things. It is a historically limited movement that appears on the scene only to combat a certain sort of enemy and to defend a certain sort of value; (2) conservatives have been clear about who the enemy is. Burke attacked the “adulterated metaphysics” of...