Key Thinkers

Question 1

THOMAS HOBBES

What was the name and date of his book?

Answer 1

Leviathan

1651

Question 2

THOMAS HOBBES

Give 2 key quotations of his and explain what they mean.

Answer 2

“war of all against all” - what life is characterised by

“solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” - what life is like

Question 3

THOMAS HOBBES

What type of conservative was he?

Answer 3

Traditional

Question 4

THOMAS HOBBES

2 key ideas on human nature?

Answer 4

1. needy and vulnerable. cannot understand world around them

e. g. will challenge others out of fear for own safety
e. g. seek reputation for own sake (no one will challenge them)

2. easily led astray/can be found in ‘natural chaos’. an ordered society would balance the need to lead a free life.
   e. g. in a ‘state of nature’, humans would exhibit ‘restless desire for power’ (“war of all against all”)

Question 5

THOMAS HOBBES

2 key ideas on the state?

Answer 5

1. government is established by consent of the people
   e. g. social contract (give up all right apart from self-defence)
2. argued for almost total obedience to absolute government (only alternative to chaos)

e.g. all laws restrained by order and security
or no civil society
to prevent collapse of social order

Question 6

THOMAS HOBBES

What are his years?

Answer 6

1588 - 1679

Question 7

EDMUND BURKE

What are his years?

Answer 7

1729 - 1797

Question 8

EDMUND BURKE

What is the name and year of his book?

Answer 8

Reflections on the Revolution in France

1790

Question 9

EDMUND BURKE

Give 3 key quotations of Edmund Burke and what they mean.

Answer 9

“society is a partnership…between those who are living, dead and those who are to be born.” - establishment

“a state without the means of change is without the means of its conservation”

“little platoon” - society

Question 10

EDMUND BURKE

What kind of conservative is he?

Answer 10

Traditional

Question 11

EDMUND BURKE

1 key idea on economy?

Answer 11

fervent advocate of Adam Smith’s call for free trade

Question 12

EDMUND BURKE

2 key ideas on society?

Answer 12

1. praised society as “little platoons”
   e. g. multitude of small, diverse, large autonomous communities
2. endorses tradition (empiricism), linked to idea of organic, gradual change. undertaken with great caution
   e. g. tested wisdom
   e. g. continuity and stability
   e. g. revolution leads to complete breakdown (link to state and reforms)

Question 13

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

What are his years?

Answer 13

1901 - 1990

Question 14

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

What is the name and what year his book was written?

Answer 14

On Being Conservative (1962)

Question 15

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

Give 2 key quotations and what they mean.

Answer 15

“prefer the familiar to the unknown” - conservation

“the art of the possible” - pragmatism

Question 16

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

What kind of conservative was he?

Answer 16

traditional

Question 17

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

2 key ideas on the state?

Answer 17

1. state can only be successful is it take pragmatic approach
   - deliver best interests without overstepping limits
   - maintains social stability with change where necessary (conscious of historical roots)
   - is flexible and shifts dogmatic decision making with rigid theories
2. view of human imperfection informs his view that the state is there to ‘prevent the bad, not create the good’

Question 18

MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

Name 2 ideas on human nature.

Answer 18

1. human imperfection suggests that society is unpredicatble. humans are imperfect but need
   not be pessimistic. most people are ‘fallible but not terrible’ and ‘imperfect but not immoral’
2. lacking mental faculties
   people’s actions should be guided by pragmatism, rather than by ideology
   e.g. rational attempts to make sense of society inevitably distort and simplify. this is aggravated by human imperfection, people do not have mental faculties to make sense of a complex modern world

Question 19

AYN RAND

What are her years?

Answer 19

1905-1982

Question 20

AYN RAND

What is the year and name of her books?

Answer 20

The Fountainhead (1943)

Atlas Shrugged (1957)

Question 21

AYN RAND

Give 2 key quotations and their meaning.

Answer 21

“fight for capitalism…as a moral issue” - importance of capitalism
“the small state is the strong state” - less state intervention

Question 22

AYN RAND

What type of conservative?

Answer 22

one nation conservative (???)

Question 23

AYN RAND

Name 1 idea on human nature.

Answer 23

1. Objectivism
   e. g. libertarian philosophical system that advocates the virtues of rational self-interest
   e. g. this was morally right

Question 24

AYN RAND

Name 2 ideas on society.

Answer 24

1. personal altruism should be rejected
   e. g. individuals should be put first
   e. g. such acts created an ‘artificial’ sense of obligation and expectation
   e. g. did not accord with an individual’s rational self-interest
   e. g. defended right to choose in areas like homosexuality and abortion
2. atomism
   society is defined by millions of autonomous individuals
   e.g. each independently seeking self-fulfilment and self-realisation

Question 25

AYN RAND | Name 2 ideas for economy.

Answer 25

1. freedom of economy e. g. support for completely unregulated, laissez-faire economy e. g. compatible with the free expression of human rationality e. g. respects individual's self-interest

Question 26

ROBERT NOZICK | What are his years?

Answer 26

1938-2002

Question 27

ROBERT NOZICK | What is the name and year of his book?

Answer 27

Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974)

Question 28

ROBERT NOZICK | Give 1 quotation and what idea it links to.

Answer 28

"individuals have rights and there are things no person or group may do to them" - libertarianism

Question 29

ROBERT NOZICK | What kind of conservative was he?

Answer 29

one nation conservative (???)

Question 30

ROBERT NOZICK | Name 2 ideas about society.

Answer 30

1. Libertarianism e.g. based on Kant's idea that individuals in society cannot be treated as thing, or used against their own will as a resource ('always as a end, never as a means only') 2. self-ownership e. g. individuals own their own bodies, talents, abilities and labour e. g. society predates the state and individuals should determine what is done with that 'possession' e. g. they are free to practice their own particular moral codes and values (updates version of Burke's 'little platoons')

Question 31

ROBERT NOZICK | Name 2 ideas on the state.

Answer 31

1. taxes to fund state welfare programmes are immoral - amount to a type of forced labour imposed on individual by the state - treat individuals as a means or resource, to further social justice. 2. the only type of state that can be morally justified is a minimal/'nightwatchman' state. e. g. limited powers to protect those necessary against violence, theft and fraud. e. g. growth of welfare states in western Europe fostered dependency culture