Cultural Heritage II
Conservatism and Liberalism
Great Chain of Being
Old Order: Nobility, Clergy, and Peasants
Divine Right of Kings
Absolute Monarchy
Louis XIV, the “Sun King”:
Representative Parliament vs. Absolutist Monarchy
English Civil War, 1642-49
Charles
I, executed in 1649
Oliver Cromwell, Puritans vs.
Cavaliers/Catholics, the Commonwealth, 1649-60
The Restoration, Charles II,
1660-85., James II (1685-88)
The Glorious Revolution, William and
Mary, Bill of Rights, 1689.
Constitutional Monarchy
From Subjects to Citizens
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Leviathan (1651)
Human
Nature: selfish and unchangeable.
Life in
State of
Social Contract
(pro-absolutism, social norms, against disorder).
Hierarchy: people can’t rule themselves because they
don’t know enough and are selfish. Supports “noblesse oblige.”
Classical
Conservatism
John Locke (1632-1704), Second
Treatise of Government (1690).
Human
Nature: good, but made bad by society; a “tabula rasa.”
Life in
State of
Social Contract
(pro-constitutionalism, individual rights, revolution); government must protect
“natural rights”: life, liberty, property.
Equality: believes in the “common
sense” of the people, right to revolt.
Classical
Liberalism
Discussion?: Based on Hobbes and Locke, do you regard yourself as a conservative, a liberal, or something in-between? How does this affect you views on, say, the Iraq War? How is the debate between Hobbes and Locke reflected in contemporary political debate? Remember that they don’t correlate exactly with the Republican and Democratic Parties. How, then, do the parties reflect and deviate from Hobbes and Locke?