Classical Liberalism and Cultural Conservatism

3 September 2006 at 4:27 pm Peter G. Klein Leave a comment

| Peter Klein |

Astute readers will have noticed this blog’s professed interest in both classical liberalism (or libertarianism) and cultural conservatism. But are they compatible? Classical liberals are often portrayed as social and cultural libertines, products of the Enlightenment, modernism, and the secular revolt of Reason against traditional moral authority. Indeed, responding to an earlier post on the political leanings of sociologists, a commentator wrote: “I am honestly curious about how you square the rational ambitions of classical liberalism with the irrational conservative ideals on ‘orthodox Christianity’ and reliance on Authority?”

The answer is simple: classical liberalism is a political doctrine, and cultural conservatism is, well, a cultural doctrine — more precisely, a set of social, cultural, and moral beliefs or principles.

For a strong argument that the political doctrine of classical liberalism is fully compatible with the cultural doctrines of Judaism and Christianity see this classic article by Ralph Raico, which first appeared in the New Individualist Review in 1964. (For more details see Raico’s PhD dissertation, “The Place of Religion in the Liberal Philosophy of Constant, Tocqueville, and Lord Acton,” written at the University of Chicago under F. A. Hayek’s supervision.)

For a more recent attack on libertarianism from a culturally conservative philosopher see a series of posts by Edward Feser, along with replies by David Gordon (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).