![]() ![]() Scruton contends that the advent of the Industrial Revolution resulted in a shift in focus for conservatives, from "the battleground of politics" to the preservation of cultural values in the face of rapid social change. He pillories liberals for focusing on "abstract signed to apply to all people everywhere" rather than "focus on the concrete inheritance of a people"-a tendency he argues led to the devastation of the French Revolution, which "systematically destroyed the stock of social capital" and descended into tyranny, and whose counter-tendency for continuity and respect of the law was the reason for the success of the American Revolution, whose constitution was "no more than a document making explicit a spirit already present in the Anglo-American common law". Because people are, according to Scruton, born into society "burdened by obligations and subject to institutions and traditions", he contends that liberty is inherited rather than chosen. Scruton places particular emphasis on the conservative belief that liberty is not possible without custom and tradition, as "individual liberty from political order", and not the other way around. ![]() In particular, both "conservatives and liberals agree on the need for limited government, representative institutions, the separation of powers, and the basic rights of the citizen", but conservatives reject social contract theory and individualism not grounded by custom and tradition. Modern conservatism began as a "hesitation within liberalism", arising from the ideas of the classical liberals-notably Thomas Hobbes, James Harrington, John Locke, and Baron de Montesquieu-while insisting that the "liberation of the individual" advocated by liberalism "could not be achieved without the maintenance of customs and institutions". Scruton argues that whereas the conservatism of "pre-history" (pre-Enlightenment) focused on the preservation of old systems of power in which political authority flows down from the sovereign to individuals, modern conservatism is stolidly "a product of the Enlightenment" that accepts the (originally progressive) notion of popular sovereignty. Scruton criticizes both the individualism of Western progressivism and the collectivism of socialism, arguing conservatism finds a realistic middle ground that suits both the limits and aspirations of individuals by recognizing that "the individual first sets out on the journey to freedom" from the "spheres of attachment" of family and community. Throughout, Scruton places emphasis on the tension between individual ambition and social membership-the "freedom of the individual” and the "need for custom and community”. In its most recent attempt to define itself it has become the champion of Western civilisation against its enemies". He contends that modern conservatism "began as a defense of tradition against the calls for popular sovereignty it became an appeal on behalf of religion and high culture against the materialist doctrine of progress, before joining forces with the classical liberals in the fight against socialism. ![]() Scruton traces the intellectual development of modern Western conservatism. It is intended as an introduction to conservatism, with the author stating, "I have written this book in the hope of encouraging well-meaning liberals to take a look at what arguments really are”. Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition is a 2017 book by English philosopher Roger Scruton, in which the author outlines the development of modern conservatism. ![]()
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