Philosophy into Dogma: The Revival of Cultural Conservatism.

This article examines one form of recent conservative argument: the 'cultural conservatism' connected with the work of Roger Scruton and the Salisbury Review. It focuses on the claim that a feeling of allegiance to a common culture is a source of authority. The fact that feelings of this kind are often incapable of discursive expression except in the form of myth poses a critical problem for cultural conservatives. To analyse the myths that sustain authority is at the same time to question them. To identify a myth as a myth is to destroy its usefulness in politics, as radical demythologizers are aware. It is argued that this paradox appears in a split between those conservatives who believe in an immutable human nature and those for whom 'human nature' is a convenient political fiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]