Radicalism and Conservatism in Early Social Thought

Abstract This chapter examines the way in which the moral and social philosophy of the early nineteenth century was characterized by the opposed forces of radicalism and conservatism. It was the upheaval of French Revolution that inspired the feminism of Mary Wollstonecraft and the anarchism of William Godwin, but equally challenging to orthodox moral thought was the reformatory utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and the other philosophical radicals. Somewhat later on, Robert Owen’s communitarian experiment in New Lanark was led by and itself encouraged similar utopian ideas of social reform. Unsurprisingly, such radicalism inspired the chill wind of a new conservatism; a reactionary trend which eventually proved the stronger. On this side of the balance, the chapter examines Malthus’ analysis of population growth, with its dismal conclusion that human progress was impossible to achieve and dangerous to attempt, as well as the highly conservative intuitionism of Dugald Stewart and James Mackintosh.