Edmund Burke Flashcards
Burke’s main work
Reflections on the revolution in France - 1790
Showed burkes opposition to the French Revolution
Defined conservative thought on human imperfection, empiricism, organicism, tradition, aristocracy and localism
Burke’s opinion of human imperfection
Stressed mankind’s ability to be wrong and tendency to fail more than succeed
Denounced the idealistic society which the French Revolution imagined, claiming it was a utopian (and unrealistic) view of human nature
Burke’s view on change
Although change is necessary to preserve, changed should only be based on fact + experience, rather than theory + idealism
Criticised French Revolution for discarding what was ‘known’, instead creating an entire new society based on ‘philosophical abstraction’
Whereas, American Revolution stemmed to preserve their way of life after evolving organically
What did Burke think the state was based on?
State based on history and slow, evolutionary change
Therefore, future change had to be cautious + organic
Denounced French Revolution for discarding history + tradition
Burke’s view on equality
Angry about French Revolutions stress on inequality
In all organic societies, a ruling class is inevitable + desirable
Ruling class had a clear obligation to govern in interest of all - it was the French aristocracies failure to govern for all that led to the revolution
Burke’s view on organisation of society
Condemned the new French Republic’s centralised structures
Praised a society of ‘little platoons’ (multiple small + autonomous communities which ‘acknowledge, nurture and prune … the crooked timber of humanity’)
