Chapter 5 Flashcards
Burke talks about two clubs/society groups that are in France. What are their names?
the Constitutional Society/Society for Constitutional Information and the Revolution Society
What are the three key rights that Burke says the French are interested in?
1) To choose their own governors
2) To cashier them for misconduct
3) To frame a government for themselves
In the case of the second “right”, what does Burke say will happen to a government?
He says that no government would be able to stand for a moment, if it could be blown down with something so indefinite as an opinion of “misconduct”, for it would be constantly beset by accusations of misconduct and thus fall apart.
What does Burke say os the oldest reformation in England?
the Magna Charta
Burke says that 24 million ought to prevail over 200,00 if the constitution of the kingdom were a what?
Only if the constitution of the kingdom were to be a problem of arithmetic.
What do we have to consider when we decide if liberty is appropriate?
The appropriateness of liberty can only be established when we consider who it is for and when it occurs. E.g., liberty is a bad thing when it is for a criminal who should be imprisoned.
Why does Burke think that democracy is not really possible?
Most people are not well educated enough or have the prudence needed to make the decisions that need to be made.
In the lecture, the example of children is used to discuss traditions. What is that example?
Children accept the traditions of their own family without questioning them, but when they grow up, they reconsider what the traditions are and if they are important.
According to the lecture, what is the “democracy of the dead”?
The idea that we need to give those of the past a voice in the matters of the present. This respects those of the past and what we have received from them.
How does Burke use Marie Antoinette as an example of what the French have destroyed in the revolution?
She is a picture of true honor, true nobility, and the “spirit of the exalted freedom” that can only be found in a respect for the hierarchy of France’s society. When France killed its nobility, it also killed its sense of the noble virtue that reached back through the history of France.
