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Edmund Burke
The Right Honourable Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729- July 9, 1797) was
a Member of Parliament between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons with
Burke started his philosophical works in 1752, when he wrote his first book
atheistic rationalism. His book gained a serious appreciation among critics which
led him to publish the second edition in 1757 that reveals the satiristic nature of his
first book. Burke was regarded as a talented writer by most critics. He displayed his
philosophic prowess when he published his second book at the age of 18. The book
entitled A Philosophical enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful. The book attracted the attention of other thinkers of his era like Immanuel
Kant (1724-1804) and Denis Diderot (1713-1784). The book was a treatise on
Aesthetics and when he was asked about expanding his treatise on aesthetics in his
later years, he never agreed because he was too old to further expand the
abstraction he written in his younger years. Throughout his political career he will
be highly respected statesman and philosopher. Often many people will seek advices
from him about the social issues and trends around Europe. In 1790, he would
publish a book from a letter and it will be famously known as Reflections on the
Revolution in France. After his death, his speeches and letters that contain his ideas
about the affairs of state and further thoughts on the Revolutions of France were
Burke started his political career when he worked as a private secretary to the
Lord Rockingham. This led to winning his first seat in the House of Commons in
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Whig Party. His membership with the Whig Party would take part in his defense of
Glorious Revolution in his book Reflections on the Revolution in France as the Whig
Party played a major role in the Glorious Revolution [ CITATION Gro95 \l 1033 ].
American colonists and supported the American Revolution. This would disprove
the stipulations that Burke hated revolutions. He also denounced the religious
His career ended on 1794. He was about to build a political dynasty on the
persona of his son, Richard but he died months later. He was greatly devastated and
Buckingham.
Burke started the idea of underpinning virtues with mannerism society and
the importance of religious institutions for moral stability, social unity and good for
the state. He was highly regarded as the "Father of Modern Conservatism" and
(1996), Burke was the "only philosopher who turned wholly from political theory to
international politics".
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Background
At first, Burke did not condemn the French Revolution though France was a
bitter nemesis of Great Britain. In fact he even praised struggle for liberty in France
after the Fall of Bastille. But the events of October 5-6, 1789 which became known
by the history as "Women's March to Versailles" changed his stance about the
bread in Paris. It resulted to mobbing of the Royal Palace in Versailles and return of
the King and his delegates to the nation's capital Paris. Burke saw the degradation of
order and became skeptical with the revolution and he would be engaging in
to Burke about his support to the revolt. Burke replied in denial of his support.
Months later in January 1790, Burke read the sermon of Dr. Richard Price's sermon
to the Revolution Society entitled A Discourse on the Love of Our Country to the
Revolution Society. The sermon talks about Price's thoughts concerning Human
Rights and comparison of Glorious Revolution and French Revolution. After reading,
he wrote the draft of what would become as The Reflections on the Revolution in
France and it was published in November 1, 1790. The book would become a best
seller and will be reproduce of thousands of copies not only in Great Britain but also
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in France, where the monarch Louis XVI would order the mass production to be
builds the basic foundations of Conservatism and Burke will be regarded as the
In November 1688, the English Elites particularly from the Whig Party who
supported the constitutional monarchy secretly invited the daughter of Stuart king,
Mary II and her husband William III of Orange to restore the Protestant line of
succession on the British throne. The monarch, James II had a power strain over the
Parliament and the Anglican Church when the king converted himself to Roman
bishops of Anglican Church, and repeal the laws regarding suppression of Catholics
in a Protestant country. Fearing of the comeback of British Civil Wars and a absolute
monarchy after the Catholic king produced a male heir to the throne, the members
of the elite decided to remove the king of the throne and installed a protestant
regime. This event was called the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and it aimed to the
restoration of the Protestant line and the power of Parliament over the crown.
On the speech made by Dr. Richard Price to the Revolution Society, Price
used the Glorious Revolution as a manifestation of natural rights innate within man
and the relationship of the sovereign (king) and the people as subjects. As a Whig,
Burke made a classic Whiggish defence against the misinterpretation of the Glorious
Revolution. Burke made a distinction between the events of Glorious Revolution and
the French Revolution stating that the revolution was indeed a necessary move in
order to prevent the comeback of civil war between the Protestants and a Catholic
monarch.
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"These gentlemen of the Old Jewry, in all of their reasoning on the Revolution
of 1688, have a revolution which happened in England about forty years before, and
the late French Revolution, so much before their eyes, and in their hearts, that they
are constantly confounding all the three together. It is necessary that we should
separate what they confound.... They followed the principles which prevailed in the
Declaration of Right; indicating with more precision the persons who were to
inherit the Protestant line. This act also incorporated by the same policy, our
liberties, and a hereditary succession in the same act. Instead of a right to choose
our governors, they declared that the succession in that line (in the protestant line
drawn from James the 1st) was an absolute necessary 'for the peace, quiet and
security of the realm', and equally urgent on them 'to maintain a certainty in the
The restoration of Protestant throne does not only protect the supremacy of
Parliament over the crown, but also the fulfillment of divine right theory. It also
protected the tradition of British monarchy. As his argument against Price, Burke
pointed out about the nature of the restoration as not much like the election that the
French National Assembly had. He argued that it is also part of the preservation of
the tradition of succession of the crown and too far from total removal of the
monarch and elections happened in France which led to the terroristic purge to the
loyalists (Reign of Terror) which even the National Assembly cannot even control.
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Price's sermon to the Revolution Society. Burke exhibited his wisdom and thoughts
regarding the revolution. It is clear in his book about his disbelief of theoretical
dogmas and did a comparative analysis with the two countries. Hoffman and
Graham (2015) reflected that "the main thrust of Burke's Reflections is to contrast a
within a society -Britain- which has remained close to its traditions, to which it is
prejudiced". For Burke, dealing with abstractions like human rights and liberty is
Throughout his book Burke spent his thoughts dissing the pulpit of Old Jewry,
he also included the importance of wisdom. Burke believes that the wisdom of the
(intuition) and private property is properly preserved along wisdom, the nation
“A state without the means of some change is without the means of its
conservation. Without such means might even risk the loss of that part of
But preserving traditions does not mean to be stagnant with it. In order for it to
survive in a modern world, Burke believes in performing a double act, accept some
features of modernity while at the same time seeking to restrain or contain them
reformation over revolution. His disbelief with a dogma founded on the abstract
thoughts of liberty and rights of man often results as an excuse for abuse [ CITATION
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Hof15 \l 1033 ].
traditional elite, in other terms the 'aristocratic rule', to have an ordered hierarchy
and to know one's role in society. Burke believes that the elite played a huge key
forms of mass democracy through the emphasis of wise leadership from them.
through appeals to tradition, the weight of history, and the leadership skills of those
The period of revolution in France also saw the degradation of religion. With
the removal of the established religion in France, the Jacobins led by Maximillian
Robespierre established a cult named The Cult of Supreme Being which is intended
to replace the Roman Catholicism as the state and civic religion in France. It was
saw this as party of absurdity of human mind. He argued that by constitution a man
is a religious animal and atheism is against to the instinct (Curtis, 1981). The role of
religion to the state as bulwark of virtues, preservation of wisdom and ethics is very
also to operate with a wholesome awe upon free citizens; because in order to secure
liberty and he doubts in maintaining the same way as it will be full of mutinous
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elements. Burke mentioned about a popular leader who would take advantage of the
weak state of the Assembly and rise up to establish his powers. Burke's expectations
on the fate of the National Assembly would eventually be true as the visionary
Napoleon Bonaparte would rise up and seize the government. This move by
Napoleon would end up the chaotic government of the Directoire and finally ending
up the revolution.
Contribution to Politics
The French Revolution left a significant contribution to the history and to the
political ideas. The revolt would give birth to the revolutionary ideas of liberty and
its counterpart, the conservatism. Although Edmund Burke would earn criticisms on
his aristocratic approach of negation to the rights of man, his thoughts would earn
praises around the world. From the words of International Relations historian
Tobjö rn (1992), Burke "laid the foundations" of the "conservative approach to the
International Relations by the two modern notions of state interest and necessity".
Hoffman and Graham (2015) stated that although Burke's conservatism is liberal
progressive in his time. It is true, however, as Whig faction in which Burke was part
of, believes in liberalistic approach to constitutional monarchy. But soon after, the
faction would broke into two sub factions; the Old Whigs led by Burke and the New
those who supported the revolution and the natural rights of man. Mary
and followed by Thomas Paine (1737-1809) with his Rights of Man (1791). Both
criticized Burke for his belief of hereditary rights and aristocratic perspective to the
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revolution. This will further expand the long dialectical arguments regarding the
modernity and abstract thoughts. The genius of Burke offers us a fair warning from
a tragic revolt against the establishment, belief of unfeasible ideas and the
REFERENCES
Books
Burke, E. (1790). Reflections on the Revolution in France (PDF). London, UK: James
Dodsley.
Curtis, M. (2008). The Great Political Theories Volume II. New York, N.Y.:
Harperperennial Modern Classics .
Armitage, D. (2000). Edmund Burke and the Reason of State. Journal of the History of
Ideas , 617-634
Bourke, R. (2017,July 27). Conservatism of Edmund Burke -Richard Bourke [Video
File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_PM438D7p0
Harris, Ian, "Edmund Burke", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012
Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/burke/>.
Wight, Martin. (1996). Why is There No International Theory. Diplomatic
Investigations: Essays in the Theory of International Politics .