Posted on 03/21/2009 1:56:51 AM PDT by neverdem
Tired of being called a “traditionalist?” Maybe you shouldn’t be. Traditionalists may know more about truth than we have been led to believe.
Intellectuals, philosophers, and ersatz “progressives” have been hanging the albatross of tradition around conservatives’ necks for … well … let’s just say it is a long standing tradition for the intellectual elites to demean conservatives by calling them “traditionalists.”
In this article, I will argue that tradition is a good thing, not a bad thing -- a smart position not a naïve one. I will suggest that the process we call “tradition” helps human beings understand and delineate, over the long run, what is true. Intellectuals and liberals are wrong about the meaning and value of tradition. And, once again, whether they understand and can articulate their reasons or not, conservatives are right.
To emphasize my thesis: establishing and then observing tradition is the basis of how human beings determine a large part of truth. Most conservatives instinctively recognize this fact.1 In this paper I want to begin the examination of this oddity.
Introduction: Tradition and Philosophy
There is a long-standing feud between tradition and philosophy (or “intellectualism”). One might say that there is an intellectual practice of bashing and then banishing tradition. There are two reasons for this war between tradition and philosophy. First, philosophy is, at its core, progressive or revolutionary, whereas, tradition, by its very definition, is not.2 Philosophy begins in an examination and a critique of the given; and the human given, in any particular culture at any particular time, is that culture’s nomos or its tradition. The system the intellectual or the philosopher creates in his reflections on the given always diverges from and contradicts the current tradition.
Second, intellectualism, and especially philosophy, is an ego driven enterprise. One of the first things that first year college students hear in their first philosophy class is “Cogito ergo sum.” (“I think therefore I am.”) The philosopher is a thinking “I.” It is not tradition, the common wisdom, that the philosopher loves -- it is his own wisdom.
Since he believes that he has, finally, discovered and conveyed the truth, the philosopher must necessarily reject the traditions that preceded him. These traditions include previous intellectual and spiritual traditions. Hegel, accordingly, looked back at his philosophical tradition and saw “ein Schlachtfeld, nur bedeckt mit den Gebeinen der Toten” (“a battlefield, strewn with the bones of the dead”).3
Tradition is the enemy of revolutionary and intellectual philosophy. This is why, with few exceptions (and we will get to some momentarily), philosophers have refused to consider the possibility that tradition is, or can be, based upon a rational process. If there is a preexisting method of rational tradition then there is no need for the intellectual to create another system (and yet another tradition) that proves that previous traditions (and systems) were false.
Open minded persons need to take a much more serious look at the idea and method of tradition. I want to suggest that there is a method for determining what is and is not rational within tradition. I will contend that the scientific method is, itself, a reflection of the rational method of tradition. This indicates that conservative (traditional) principles are based on reason because tradition itself is (or can be) part of a rational method of establishing certain truths.
By way of introduction, I will briefly examine three philosophers who caught at least a glimpse of the method of rational tradition. In chronological order they are Aquinas, Montesquieu and Edmond Burke. Not surprisingly, all three of these thinkers, each of whom in his own way defended tradition, are considered “conservative” or, in the case of Montesquieu, at least anti-revolutionary.4
In the Summa Theologica, Aquinas tells us: “Through actions, especially when they are repeated and made a custom, law can be revised and expressed; thus establishing a thing that obtains the force of law…. Because, when something is done again and again, it appears to deliberately proceed as a judgment of reason.”5 According to Aquinas, repeated actions, which form a tradition, merely appear to be true (“a judgment of reason”) through their repetition. They are judgments of reason (and, thus, true) only in as much as they adhere to the divine and natural laws. In other words, neither the longevity, nor the stability, nor the repeatability of a tradition has anything whatsoever to do with the truth of that tradition. Aquinas did not consider, as we will in this paper, that the viable and shared process of the repetition of an action might, in itself, lead to the reasonableness of that action.
Montesquieu, in his De l’Espirit des lois, was the first person to attempt to use the newly discovered scientific method as an analytical tool for understanding the process of the creation of customs or traditions. Like Aquinas, he contended that the truth of custom relies on the truth of the natural law; unlike Aquinas, he proposed a “scientific” explanation for the discrepancies that exist between the customs of various cultures. Such differences were to be explained by local geographic, topographic and climatic variations, to name a few.6
As Stanley Rosen has pointed out, there is a flaw in Montesquieu’s approach:
It is one of the excellences of a method in which time is amongst the assistants, that its operation is slow and in some cases almost imperceptible.8Not much and still at the level of rhetoric -- but it is a start. Let us keep this remark in mind as we begin our search for the method of rational tradition.
Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.9In this example the tradition allows certain activities (the eating of scaled fish) and denies others (the eating of shellfish). In such cases, the decision to permit X, and to forbid Y, is not arbitrary, nor is it initially reached by mutual consent. This type of tradition entails a judgment of value. (Scaled fish good, shelled fish bad.) Let us call these second types of traditions, “value traditions.”
1. The length of the tradition. One indication of a rational tradition is its historical staying power. A tradition that spans millennium and refuses to die is more likely to be rational than the latest fad.A method of rational tradition would consist of a mix of (at least) these five criteria. A rational tradition does not necessarily have to initially meet all five criteria at once. (The height at which jet airliners travel does not meet #1.) But, if a tradition is rational it will eventually fulfill all five.
2. Cross cultural acceptance of the tradition. A tradition shared cross culturally is more likely to be rational. Such traditions have jumped the local limitations that Montesquieu described in De l’Espirit des lois. (See Part I.)
3a. A lack of controversy regarding the tradition. A rational tradition is more likely to slip “under the radar” and to be accepted far more often than it is challenged. “Thou shall not steal” is not controversial.
3b. The application of the tradition is taken for granted. This is slightly different than 3a. Some traditions are so ingrained that most people do not even see them as traditions and follow them without thinking. Consider “Thou shall not kill.” Most people do not have to tell themselves not to kill other people.
4. The tradition is relied upon in mutual interactions between human beings. I expect you to stay in the right hand lane on a two-way road -- and you expect the same from me.
5. The application of the tradition by different human beings produces a consistent outcome. This is, of course, what the scientific method requires for an experiment to be valid.
It is simple.
The intellectual looks at history and sees misery and despair. The intellectual believes they can “fix” humanity by applying certain controls to their lives.
No trans fats, no guns, eliminate money (hence greed), and restrict pollution so nobody has to see it.
Unfortunately, intellectuals do not understand man’s thirst for money and power. Hence, those operating the intellectuals’ controls revert to their own personal greed and quest for power and the system corrupts until it is broken down by the masses.
Conservatives trust the free market because, over the long run, it is self-correcting and prevents the accumulation of money to any one group or person. Conservatives trust a representative republic because it prevents the accumulation of power to any one group or person.
Intellectuals cannot trust the free market because they do not control it. You see, without their wisdom, the system only has flaws as demonstrated by homelessness and poverty. What the intellectuals do not understand is that the free market corrects homelessness and poverty by eliminating those who have no work ethic in favor of those who do.
Why the delignation of intellect from conservatism?
Tradition is the enemy of revolutionary and intellectual philosophy. This is why, with few exceptions (and we will get to some momentarily), philosophers have refused to consider the possibility that tradition is, or can be, based upon a rational process. If there is a preexisting method of rational tradition then there is no need for the intellectual to create another system (and yet another tradition) that proves that previous traditions (and systems) were false.
Please recall the exchange between Danny Deutsch and Ann Coulter when Deutsch professed real or feigned umbrage at Coulter when she suggested that Christianity held Jews needed a to be "perfected."
At the time I argued that Deutsch's position was intellectually as offensive as he claimed Coulter's position was. He argued that Coulter's position was offensive because it presumes superiority of Christianity over Judaism. But Deutsch's rejection of Christianity presumes superiority of Judaism over Christianity. Why is one more offensive than the other?
The author lays out the eternal tension between new and old philosophies. We should not be surprised nor should we be offended when someone else thinks his philosophy is superior to our own. Danny Deutsch his religion aside, clearly needs to be perfected.
I reject utterly the notion that intellectualism and philosophy are divorced from conservatism and tradition.
That is an artificial delineation.
Interesting article, tho’.
There is no adequation between “intellectualism”(=libtardism) and PHILOSOPHY....
“Intellectuals”(understand “liberals”) pretend to speak the words of “science” and “philosophy” but it is an hoax,a HUGE HOAX ,the result of a silent war strategy following which the left have to grab all the fields of influence in order to influence people and societies...Ever heard about GRAMSCI a leftist “intellectual” who theorized the cultural war...?
There were/are determined,organized and fanatics and “traditionalists” or “conservatives” were/are too naîves,individualists....
To paraphrase the great British historian Paul Johnson: Ideas have killed more people than tradition ever could.
I agree wholeheartedly, and find the delineations made by the author to be nearly offensive. Conservatism is founded in principle, not tradition; albeit the traditions come readily from the established principles...
Still, the principles of Conservatism are defended intellectually, and philosophically- Not simply because we have always done them this way, as is the case of a tradition.
A better term to describe our opposites, the "progressives", in the classic sense, would be as "Sophists" and "Sophistry"- Those who believe their class entitles their opinion and intelligence.
Although I don't know what 'delignation' means, I also don't see how conservatism is not a philosophy that can be clearly and completely defended by conservative intellectuals such as, say, William F. Buckley.
Philosophers, too, can reach the same conservative conclusions that have been enshrined and perpetuated in "traditions." They are traditions simply because they work.
IMO there is no need to claim or even imply that conservative ideals are not well-derived from ethical and rational intellectuals and philosophers (of which I am neither but respect them greatly.)
And, of course, the Biblical source of many conservative principles is simply that, a reliable source that can be then examined to find the principles behind the teachings so that we mere humans might understand them. This does not conflict with faith or religion whatsoever.
Anyway, the thought that conservative principles were somehow simple "mindless" traditions bothered me, so thus I ranted. :0)
Chesterton said it first, however.
Money quote from Chesterton:
"Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, "Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good--" At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark. "
“Intellectuals, philosophers and progressives...”
Make that psychotic, adolescent sophists.
IMHO
Not wanting to be constrained by the same rules as the hoi polloi: "rules are fine for the mere children who know better than to be led." Or as the evil magician said in The Magician's Nephew:
"Oh, I see. You mean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very true: most right and proper I'm sure, and I'm very glad you have been taught to do it. But of course, you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys -- and servants -- and women -- and even people in general, can't possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. No, Digory. Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny."
Cheers!
No Chicago jokes, please.
First, and not to be the 'intellectual', it is spelled delineation.
Second, the author (and I) use the term 'intellectual' as applied to those who call themselves such and, as a result, believe their wisdom is greater than the wisdom of the masses.
Conservatives can be intellectuals, philosophers, etc. It is not unique to liberals to be 'intellectuals'.....however, the higher your education (not exactly equal to intellect) the more prone you are to being a liberal.
Third, it is these 'intellectuals' that believe mankind can thwart tradition and history. That is why they think they can create a better system than capitalism. That is why they think they can negotiate with terrorists. That is why they think eliminating a tool, eliminates its evil use.
Good essay, good responses.
The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 by George Nash.
Did You Ever See a Dream Walking? American Conservative Thought in the Twentieth Century by William F. Buckley, Jr.
Russell Kirk, no intellectual lightweight, included the following in his principles of conservatism:
"1. An enduring moral order
First, the conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order. That order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent.
This word order signifies harmony. There are two aspects or types of order: the inner order of the soul, and the outer order of the commonwealth. Twenty-five centuries ago, Plato taught this doctrine, but even the educated nowadays find it difficult to understand. The problem of order has been a principal concern of conservatives ever since conservative became a term of politics.
Our twentieth-century world has experienced the hideous consequences of the collapse of belief in a moral order. Like the atrocities and disasters of Greece in the fifth century before Christ, the ruin of great nations in our century shows us the pit into which fall societies that mistake clever self-interest, or ingenious social controls, for pleasing alternatives to an oldfangled moral order.
It has been said by liberal intellectuals that the conservative believes all social questions, at heart, to be questions of private morality. Properly understood, this statement is quite true. A society in which men and women are governed by belief in an enduring moral order, by a strong sense of right and wrong, by personal convictions about justice and honor, will be a good society--whatever political machinery it may utilize; while a society in which men and women are morally adrift, ignorant of norms, and intent chiefly upon gratification of appetites, will be a bad society--no matter how many people vote and no matter how liberal its formal constitution may be."
This is a philosophical theory. Although contemporary leftists dispute the basis of moral order in natural law, launching off into epistemological skepticism on issues of morality and transcendence, there is no reason to turn against all intellectual activity or philosophizing as leading necessarily to non-conservative conclusions. There is a valid conservative role in the life of the mind.
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks for the Chesterton link!
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