ABSTRACT
The conflict referred to in the title of Leist’s contribution is understood to hold between a production-oriented and a conservation-oriented attitude prevalent in most contemporary societies, to the disadvantage of natural resources. Roger Scruton’s conservatism, especially as developed in his book Green Philosophy, is taken as a foil to lay open the different dimensions of the conflict, with a strong emphasis on culture and value-oriented behaviour. Conservatism encompasses belief in intrinsic values, traditional virtues and an active community. In Leist’s analysis, these are explained out of a deeper layer of two sources, a realist social experience and metaphysical/religious beliefs. By accepting the first but evading the second of these sources, a ‘liberal realist’ attitude towards environmental topics is suggested, which only partially overlaps with Scruton’s own aims and statements. How the manifest conflict between conservation/tradition and modernity can be navigated is illustrated by the environmental problems arising in areas such as architecture, local environmentalism, farming, entrepreneurship and life-style. The stance taken here is that conservative values could be effective for conserving sustainability, but have to be adopted within the frame of a modern morality.
