Conservatism vs Liberalism

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that conservatism answers questions of equality better than liberalism, and therefore provides the better account of the role of equality in a just society. The author argues that liberal egalitarianism is rightly rejected by conservatives, and examines issues of responsibility and choice, the fostering of good lives, and the value of history and reason as guides, skepticism and pluralism, and the faults in the Original Position. Includes references to various writers and theorists.

From the Paper:

"In a society characterized by moderate scarcity and moderate sociability - Rawls's conditions for justice - people will experience substantial differences in their well-being, absent government intervention. After all, people are endowed at birth with wildly varying degrees of natural talent and social fortune. Even individuals born with identical advantages will eventually find themselves in unequal positions, as a result of random occurrences and the possession of different attitudes and propensities. For example, a car may hit one of the two, or one of the two may spend relatively more time pursuing his education, while the other may spend relatively more time pursuing women. The political philosopher must respond to nature's apparent predisposition toward inequality by answering two questions: Is this a problem? What ought to be done about it? This paper argues that conservatism answers these questions better than liberalism, and therefore provides the better account of the role of equality in a just society.?

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