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Varieties of Conservatism

JOHN KEKES, A PROFESSOR of philosophy and public policy at the State University of New York at Albany, is a prolific author. In the past ten years alone, he has written at least seven books on moral and political philosophy, and the Case for Conservatism is the most recent. And it is an important work, particularly for conservatives. Its importance, though, may lie less in what Kekes actually accomplishes and more in what he set out to achieve. In a work of about two hundred pages, Kekes attempts to show that conservatism is not a set of political and moral commitments that result from “the sway of passion over reason and of self-interest over morality,” or that it is incapable of being defended in a “reasonable and morally committed” manner. Here Kekes makes a case for a form of conservatism that he realizes many conservatives will not recognize as such. This is, however, of little concern to him for it is not his goal to canvass the historical or contemporary thought of recognized conserva-