England’s pro-England Moral Philosophers

The moral philosophers in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were pro-England. They mostly preached in favor of the status quo (Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Smith, Burke, and others). In France and Germany, during the same period, the moral philosophers were anti-France and anti-Germany (Voltaire, Montesquieu, Kant, Rousseau, and others) and they mostly preached against the status quo. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, England attained great economic and political success—the industrial revolution led to an unprecedented growth in its economy and it became the empire on which the sun never set. France and Germany in this period remained mired in a multitude of political and economic problems. Even in the twentieth century, England has fared better than France and Germany. The lesson to be learned from this is that a nation in which the moral philosophy is dominated by nationalistic philosophers has a better chance of making progress.