About this Research Topic
Conservative thinkers on the European continent have generally been less prone to compromise with the political Enlightenment than their Anglo-American counterparts. Since the eighteenth century, they have been profoundly influenced by the relativist and antirationalist intellectual currents designated by Isaiah Berlin as the "Counter-Enlightenment" and extending via nineteenth-century Romanticism and vitalism to the "conservative revolution" of Weimar-era Germany. If such an uncompromising stance towards the main tenets of progressive thought constituted a liability in the aftermath of the Second World War, soon their fundamental questioning of liberal principles acquired a new – and perhaps unexpected – audience among left-leaning democratic theorists and critics of modernity. Today, with the resurgence of nationalism, nativism, and cultural and ethnic particularism, it is safe to argue that such a thinking is far from being old news.
The volume engages in a discussion of conservative topics and thinkers on the European continent from 1789 to the present. It addresses issues such as attitudes towards change, conceptions of time, sovereignty and democracy, the role of conflict, the limits of reason, and the relation between the individual and the community, as they have been interpreted and reinterpreted from conservative points of view. In addition, close attention is paid to the links of conservative thought to late modern strands of continental philosophy – nihilism, relativism and historicism, among others – and to its permeation by ideational components stemming from the universes of liberalism, socialism, nationalism and fascism. The contributions will mainly draw on the resources of political philosophy, conceptual history, and ideological analysis. They assess the relevance of the continental varieties of conservatism for – and their impact on – contemporary discussions in and beyond Europe. The main aim of the volume is to shed new light on the conservative intellectual lineages of various topical notions in today’s political disputes.
The focus of the volume is on conservative political movements, ideologies, thinkers, and intellectual currents on the European continent (as opposed to Anglo-American political conservatism) from the 1789 French Revolution to the present day. In particular, the volume explores the ways in which continental political conservatism was influenced by the Counter-Enlightenment. The emphasis is on original research articles in the fields of political philosophy and theory and intellectual history, but empirical studies as well as systematic review and review articles will also be welcomed. Relevant topics include but are not limited to:
- The proto-Romantic German Counter-Enlightenment and its conservative political legacy.
- French counterrevolutionary conservatism and its legacy.
- Conservative political legacy of German idealism and Romanticism.
- Conservative political legacy of historicism.
- Conservative political legacy of Lebensphilosophie and Nietzsche.
- The German "conservative revolution" of the Weimar period and its legacy.
- Postwar and contemporary "radical conservatism".
The volume engages in a discussion of conservative topics and thinkers on the European continent from 1789 to the present. It addresses issues such as attitudes towards change, conceptions of time, sovereignty and democracy, the role of conflict, the limits of reason, and the relation between the individual and the community, as they have been interpreted and reinterpreted from conservative points of view. In addition, close attention is paid to the links of conservative thought to late modern strands of continental philosophy – nihilism, relativism and historicism, among others – and to its permeation by ideational components stemming from the universes of liberalism, socialism, nationalism and fascism. The contributions will mainly draw on the resources of political philosophy, conceptual history, and ideological analysis. They assess the relevance of the continental varieties of conservatism for – and their impact on – contemporary discussions in and beyond Europe. The main aim of the volume is to shed new light on the conservative intellectual lineages of various topical notions in today’s political disputes.
The focus of the volume is on conservative political movements, ideologies, thinkers, and intellectual currents on the European continent (as opposed to Anglo-American political conservatism) from the 1789 French Revolution to the present day. In particular, the volume explores the ways in which continental political conservatism was influenced by the Counter-Enlightenment. The emphasis is on original research articles in the fields of political philosophy and theory and intellectual history, but empirical studies as well as systematic review and review articles will also be welcomed. Relevant topics include but are not limited to:
- The proto-Romantic German Counter-Enlightenment and its conservative political legacy.
- French counterrevolutionary conservatism and its legacy.
- Conservative political legacy of German idealism and Romanticism.
- Conservative political legacy of historicism.
- Conservative political legacy of Lebensphilosophie and Nietzsche.
- The German "conservative revolution" of the Weimar period and its legacy.
- Postwar and contemporary "radical conservatism".
Keywords: conservatism, conservative revolution, continental thought, Counter-Enlightenment, French conservatism, German conservatism, historicism, nationalism, particularism, political philosophy, radical conservatism, relativism
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
