Conservatism

Editor Jerry Z. Muller argues persuasively in his introduction that conservatism is best understood as a particularistic ideology rooted in place and time rather than a universal one adhering to a set of Platonic ideals. In other words, an American conservative today is not the same as a French one from 200 years ago. But conservatives everywhere do share a number of traits in common, says Muller, including a belief in human imperfection and the limits of human knowledge, faith in habit and custom, and appreciation for the utility of religion, if not necessarily the truth of it. Conservatism provides an overview to an important mode of political thought, and one that will, at the very least, get right-wingers to reflect upon their own first principles.