The problem of defining conservatism has been discussed many times, but has not received any acceptable solution.
This is primarily due to the fact that these discussions did not go beyond the historical context of the emergence of conservatism as a political movement, and this approach makes it impossible to establish a clear content of conservative ideology.
After all, the list of features of conservatism in different historical periods included many sometimes incompatible values, from monarchism and religiosity to the recognition of the inalienability of the rights and freedoms of an individual or a society based on the principles of self-organization of free citizens.
Moreover, the value systems defended by conservatives in different societies will be even more different. The content of conservatism in secular, Christian, and Islamic societies will be categorically opposite, and sometimes even conflicting.
The fact is that conservatism is not universal.
Therefore, it is impossible to summarize all the value models that conservatives in different societies and at different historical stages call for protecting and preserving.
Accordingly, in understanding the phenomenon of conservatism, we need, first, historical and geographical contextualization.
Secondly, it is a deep study at the level of philosophical reflection.
After all, conservatism, understood purely as counterrevolution or anti-modernism, in its opposition to the French Revolution or the ideas of the Enlightenment, is an example of a classic mistake in defining concepts: “a definition should not be negative.”
Accordingly, the problems of ontology, epistemology, anthropology, and axiology become relevant to us. As well as the question of the relationship between the transcendent and the transcendental, the existing and the existing, real and normative values, ethics and aesthetics…
Work in this direction makes it possible to form a methodological basis for designing conservatism as a socio-political, psychological and philosophical attitude in the conditions of modern Ukraine.