Conservatism, Liberalism, Progressivism

Every entity entails both a Unity and a Multiplicity, and Rationalism privileges the former, while Empiricism, the latter.  Now, in contemporary American Politics, 'Conservatism' and 'Liberalism' combine elements of each differently--in the former, adherence to tradition is Rationalistic, but its Individualism is Empiricistic; while in the latter, which in its history is, more accurately, 'Libertarianism', is also Individualistic, but the unifying factor is Government, not Tradition.  In contrast with Rationalist and Empiricist principles is Progressive Reason, varieties of which include Evolutionary Reason and Experimental Reason, which balances Unity and Multiplicity, by privileging neither.  Kuhn's concept of 'Scientific Revolution' illustrates that balance, in its rhythm of the introduction of a new fact, followed by its incorporation into an already established set of facts, expressed by the jettisoning of a less comprehensive hypothesis, in favor of a more comprehensive one.  Kuhn is plainly influenced by Dewey, who, correspondingly, is one of the pioneers of what can be called Political 'Progressivism'--though he himself used the term 'Liberalism' via 'Libertarianism'--a program of deliberate expansion of the body of self-determining individuals, and, hence, an alternative to both 'Conservatism' and 'Liberalism', at least in their prevalent contemporary connotations.