Editor’s note: This is the 19th in a series of essays about political liberalism and conservatism and the two-party system.
In this essay, I turn from Mill to Coleridge, and from liberalism to conservatism. For an account of Coleridge’s social philosophy, the best available one was written by John Stuart Mill, and I shall draw mostly from him.
It is more usual to think of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) as a poet than a philosopher. Many of my readers will recall having read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in high school or college, or remember the haunting opening lines of Kubla Khan, his unfinished poem whose inspiration occurred in a drug-induced dream. Its beginning lines open the imagination.
 
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree,
Where Alph the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea
 
Mill regarded him as a philosopher and represented him sympathetically and succinctly in an essay entitled, fittingly, “Coleridge,” which is still the finest introduction to Coleridge as philosopher. It was one of a complementary pair of essays—the other is about Jeremy Bentham—and together they provide an insightful comparison of liberal and conservative thinking.
It has been observed that in these essays Mill writes more sympathetically of Coleridge than of Bentham and that this may, in part, reflect his earlier mental crisis, which brought him to the verge of despair of the value and relevance of the philosophical ideas that were the basis of his upbringing and education.
However, after gazing into the abyss of disillusionment, he drew back and persisted as a champion of Bentham’s utilitarian rationalism. Yet, he came to see liberalism and conservatism not as hostile camps, but complementary modes of thought, and although he found it still necessary to take sides, and to stand with the liberals, he was still able to look towards the other side for intellectual nourishment. In this way, he represents a way of thinking worth adopting in our divisive times, perhaps even as a way to detoxify them.
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Mill praises Bentham for his rationalism and objectivity. By these means, Bentham succeeded in transforming the study of law from an uncritical review of traditions to a rigorous science. And there were great social benefits from this endeavor, especially with respect to penal laws.
For example, Bentham asked: What should be the social aim of punishment? His answer was that it must be reparative, restorative, curative. Vengeance was a primitive and destructive passion that had no place in civilized society. The desire for revenge is an irrational passion, a relic of outmoded supernatural fantasies. It should be noted, that a similar conclusion is drawn in the Mosaic Law—see Deuteronomy 32: 35 (paraphrased by St Paul in Romans 12:17–19): “Vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay.”
However, although the believer is prohibited from taking revenge, and even advised to do good to his enemy, he is consoled by the assurance that God will not fail to get even with the wicked. The desire for vengeance is placated, not removed. The Bible, is, after all, human, all too human.
In contrast to the liberal commitment to objective reason and truth, Coleridge was more attuned to what might be described as the subjectivity of traditions, which could only be imperfectly translated into clear transparent discourse. As Mill put it, the liberal is in search of truth, the conservative its inner meaning. The meaning of ancient laws, customs, and practices was recoverable not by reducing their content to a rational scheme, but, rather, by immersing oneself in their long histories and experiencing their purpose and efficacy, of patiently reading and rereading ancient documents until they were made to reveal their meaning, which is a way of life now forgotten.
“With Coleridge, the very fact that any doctrine had been believed by thoughtful men and received by whole nations or generations of mankind” may be taken as a proof of its validity, although not its truth. This applies not only to their literary remains, but also to their institutions as aristocracy, learned professions, priest-craft, the realms of sacred and profane, and even grim practices, like capital punishment. We may learn to understand them, even if we cannot justify them rationally. Thus, conservatives are better cultural historians, or archeologists of cultural artifacts and institutions, even those that have been purposively cast off, because their cast of mind is poetic and not prosaic.
Historically, Mill describes the thought of Coleridge, or as he terms it “the Germano-Coleridgian doctrine,” as a reaction against the Enlightenment. The German aspect of it is the influence on Coleridge of German romantic philosophy of the early 19th Century.
“It was metaphysical, because that [Liberalism] was experimental; conservative, because that was innovative and progressive; religious, because so much of that was infidel; concrete and historical, because that was abstract and philosophical; poetical, because that was matter-of-fact and prosaic.”
In Aids to Reflection, Coleridge presents the life of the mind as one of progressive self-transcendence whose goal is eternity. That is exemplified by the desire for the immortality of the soul, and the reality that the “eye cannot see, nor ear hear.” In this respect, the proper end of life is supernatural; mere nature is not enough; true being must be sought elsewhere.
Mill had no sympathy for supernaturalism. What interested him most was the rich historical understanding that tended to prevail more among conservatives than among liberals, who were often too ready to discard the past whenever it seemed to be an impediment to social and economic progress, and who looked upon it with suspicion, condescension and contempt.
Now, there is no doubt that recovering and conserving the past is an indispensable activity in any civilized society. Our civilization and culture would be perilously diminished if all connectedness to the traditions that have fed into it were lost. Clearly, the best way to preserve the past is by studying ancient law and customs, and by learning ancient languages and poring over the literary remains of the past, listening to its music, viewing its art and setting them all in the rich historical context in which they were created.
The study of these things is labeled the humanities and scholars who promote them as humanists, whose aim is to conserve the past and recover it if it is lost. But, it should be noted, the humanities are only a part of the “liberal arts,” which also included logic, mathematics and physics. So, it may be that our notions of higher education are well suited to bring liberal and conservative together.
Postscript: I recommend reading Mill’s essays on Bentham and Mill. They are available in a Penguin Classics paperback, which include a bit ofBentham: John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, Utilitarianism and other Essays. It has an excellent introduction to the theme of this series. See your local bookstore.