Social Progress: When and How? Two Conservative Responses and Their Limits

Abstract

In this paper I examine two common conservative responses to two questions about social progress: How should social progress be pursued? And when does social change constitute social progress? These two responses can be summarised as follows: “Less teleologically, and less often, than non-conservatives generally think”. The first response is anchored in a criticism of the claims of reason in the pursuit of social progress. I reconstruct and examine this criticism and its variants, and then turn to the second response, and more specifically to a way of arguing for it based on value conservatism. I argue that, even if correct, value conservatism speaks less often against social change than conservatives generally think.