Twitter Thread: What European Political Philosophy Has to Say Today

[robkelk]

To quote from the tweets:

So here’s a little background on where the R-L spectrum comes from and the diffs btwn philosophical conservatism and a radical right.
(BTW, absolute best way 2 understand these important issues is taking a Western Civ course common in college general education programs. Will give u more context more memorably than philosophy or polisci or econ versions, yet few take that course, to detriment of our society)
I frame my course on modern European history (French Revolution to the present) as an “epic battle between reason and unreason.” IOW, the Enlightenment posed a question to Europe: what happens if we use reason (not tradition or religion) to govern ourselves?
My course (& my research) follows many varied responses & notes how assumptions ab reason informed other developments, like nationalism.

So I read that as saying the "right-left spectrum", at least with the "radical right" at one end, as coming out of the "Enlightenment" and French Revolution "epic battle between reason and unreason."

I read that as both the right and the left representing "reason" - much like Jean-Jacques Rousseau's political philosophy about "Enlightment" before the "left" and "right" were political terms - and the rule-by-whim monarchy that they replaced as "unreason".

As Dr. Antonova said,

Edmund Burke took his place as a figurehead for mainstream conservative philosophy, but he was basically a liberal. IOW, he accepted rights, but wanted them to go only so far. That’s the “conservatism” Americans inherited (Burke favored American independence), but it’s just one, most liberal kind.

American "conservatism" has generally failed to conserve anything, because, as she notes, it's about accepting the same premises as the left, but then fighting to limit their application. It generally ends up defending "unprincipled exceptions" to the axioms of the "Enlightenment."
That's one area where I agree more with the left than the "mainstream conservatism", is that I agree that many of the policies of the Left which those of us on the right oppose do indeed follow from the "Enlightenment" principles on which America was founded. (But since I expect those policies to be utterly disastrous for those I consider my people, I therefore find myself opposing those "Enlightenment" principles, and rejecting centuries of political "development".)

Looking from the outside, it appears to me that the USA has never actually implemented the ideals of the Enlightment that are included in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, other than the one about getting rid of the monarchy. It's hardly fair to blame Enlightment for that.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012