UN CONSERVATORISMO “SCETTICO”. NOTE SU ELIE KEDOURIE

After WWII, the London School of Economics became home to a small circle of influential conservative scholars, most notably Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990) but also Elie Kedourie (1926- 1992). Oakeshott and Kedourie could be described as “conservative realists” or, perhaps better, “conservative skeptics”. Their skeptical conservatism was wary of economic planning and political meddling at large. Mainly, it was starkly opposed to the notion of forcing the diverse facets of the real world into an ideological mould born out of abstract insights. It was not, however, tied with the idea of preserving unchanged the cultural heritage of the past, as other blends of conservatism are. Kedourie provides an example of conservative skepticism, which is explored in this paper. Kedourie’s aversion for ideological politics was rooted in his personal experience, particularly his youth as a Jew in Baghdad under the Kingdom of Iraq. This work presents a summary of the set of ideas which may originate from a skeptical version of conservatism: themes include the importance of traditional institutions and a profound diffidence towards centralisation and the very idea of nationalism. Conservatism of the kind preached by Kedourie and Oakeshott tried to focus on small “l” liberty, as it was lived and enjoyed by human beings in the concrete circumstances of their lives.