Mono No Aware: How Conservatives Should do Change

Res Publica
David Jenkins1
1Department of Politics, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Tóm tắt

AbstractIn this paper, I describe a conservative disposition to change which is capable of operating alongside three other dispositions: First, a disposition to accept a degree of epistemic humility with respect to the kinds of change that count as an ‘intimation’ or continuation of the value contained in some given situation. Second, a disposition to acknowledge the legitimacy of democratic majorities, even when these are not always expressions of those ‘intimations’ or continuations. Third, the disposition to help alleviate recognizable injustices as these might be suffered—and understood—by minorities. A conservative disposition to preserve the value of some given status quo operates in tension with these other three, and can sometimes give way to those other dispositions. An important part of managing tensions between these dispositions is an additional practice of reconciliation, one that helps conservatives treat change in properly conservative ways. I develop an account of this practice through a reading of Junichiro Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows and the Japanese concept of mono no aware. I argue Tanizaki’s work offers an approach to change that is conservative in spirit while still being capable of accommodating itself to change which will reduce—and even eliminate—things of value that were possible prior to that change.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Anonymous. 1330/2014. Tyler, R. (translator). The tale of the Heike. London: Penguin.

Baldwin, J. 1961d/1998. Faulkner and desegregation. In Collected essays, ed. Toni Morrison, 206–214. New York: Literary Classics of the United States.

Baldwin, J. 1963/1998. The fire next time. In Collected essays, ed. Toni Morrison, 291–348. New York: Literary Classics of the United States.

Brennan, G., and A. Hamlin. 2004. Analytical conservatism. British Journal of Political Studies 34: 675–691.

Buckley, W. F. 1955. Our mission statement. National Review Online. Available at: https://www.nationalreview.com/1955/11/our-mission-statement-william-f-buckley-jr/.

Cohen, G. A. 2008. Rescuing justice and equality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Belknap Press.

Cohen, G.A. 2012. Rescuing conservatism: A defence of existing value. In Finding oneself in the other, ed. G. A. Cohen, 144–174. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Ellison, R. 2003. What America would be like without blacks. In The collected essays of Ralph Ellison, 581–588. New York: Random House.

Grim, R. 2020. National Review is trying to rewrite its own racist history. The Intercept. Available at: https://theintercept.com/2020/07/05/national-review-william-buckley-racism/.

Hamilton, A. 2019. Conservatism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conservatism/.

Honderich, T. 2005. Conservatism: Burke, Nozick, Bush, Blair? London: Pluto Press.

Horton, J. 2005. A qualified defence of Oakeshott’s politics of scepticism. European Journal of Political Theory 4/1: 23–36.

Juniper, A. 2003. Wabi Sabi: The Japanese art of impermanence. London: Tuttle Publishing.

Kolers, A. 2014. The priority of solidarity. Journal of Applied Philosophy 31 (4): 423–424.

Lampedusa, G. 2007. The Leopard. New York: Pantheon.

Oakeshott, M. 1991a. Rationalism in politics. In Rationalism in politics and other essays, 5–42. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund.

Oakeshott, M. 1991b. On being conservative. In Rationalism in politics and other essays, 407–437.

Oakeshott, M. 1991c. The Tower of Babel. In Rationalism in politics and other essays, 465–487.

Orwell, G. 1970a. My country right or left . In The collected essays, journalism and letters of George Orwell (vol. 1): An age like this. 587–592.

Orwell, G. 1970b. Lion and the unicorn. In The collected essays, journalism and letters of George Orwell (vol. 2): My country right or left. 74–133.

Richie, D. 2003. One hundred years of Japanese film. Tokyo: Kodansha International Press.

Robin, C. 2018. The reactionary mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scheffler, S. 2012. The normativity of tradition. In Equality and tradition: Questions of value in moral and political theory, 287–311. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scruton, R. 2001. The meaning of conservatism. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Silkin, Lewis. 1946. New towns bill. Hansard: Orders of the Day. Available at: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1946/may/08/new-towns-bill.

Stears, M. 2021. Out of the ordinary. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Belknap Press.

Swift, A. 2008. The value of philosophy in nonideal circumstances. Social Theory & Practice 34(3): 363–387.

Tanizaki, J. 1977. In praise of shadows. London: Leete’s Island Books.

Tanizaki, J. 2001. Some prefer nettles. London: Vintage Classic.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Res Publica

Thông tin tác giả