Essential Conservatism
A Conservatism of Thought and Imagination
In 1953, with the publication of The Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk set out six “canons” that he considered a reasonable summary or outline of the significant themes common among conservative thinkers. In his 1982 introduction to the Portable Conservative Reader, Kirk offered a variation on those canons, and in a chapter in the 1993 Politics of Prudence, his last book, he expanded the canons to ten principles.
Resources
- “The Essence of Conservatism,” a short and accessible 1957 essay,was written to introduce conservative thought to a general audience, has an early version of the ten principles.
- “Ten Conservative Principles,” is an extended excerpt from the 1993 essay.
Excerpts of the above are found on their individual pages.
Presented here is the Six Conservative Canons, and the Ten Principles in concise form:
Six Conservative Canons
From the Seventh Edition of the Conservative Mind.
1. Belief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well as conscience.
2. Affection for the proliferating variety and mystery of human existence, as opposed to the narrowing uniformity, egalitarianism, and utilitarian aims of most radical systems.
3. Conviction that civilized society requires orders and classes, as against the notion of a ‘classless society’.
4. Persuasion that freedom and property are closely linked: separate property from private possession, and the Leviathan becomes master of all.
5. Faith in prescription and distrust of ‘sophisters, calculators, and economists’ who would reconstruct society upon abstract designs.
6. Recognition that change may not be salutary reform: hasty innovation may be a devouring conflagration, rather than a torch of progress.
Ten Conservative Principles
First, the conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order.
Second, the conservative adheres to custom, convention, and continuity.
Third, conservatives believe in what may be called the principle of prescription.
Fourth, conservatives are guided by their principle of prudence.
Fifth, conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety.
Sixth, conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability.
Seventh, conservatives are persuaded that freedom and property are closely linked.
Eighth, conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism.
Ninth, the conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.
Tenth, the thinking conservative understands that permanence and change must be recognized and reconciled in a vigorous society.
“Mere unthinking negative opposition to the current of events, clutching in despair at what we still retain, will not suffice in this age. A conservatism of instinct must be reinforced by a conservatism of thought and imagination.”
—Russell Kirk
Source: The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal; Copyright © 2002–2004; additional sources as noted.