Edmund Burke is considered as the most important conservative political thinker and though there
were conservatives before him conservatism as a school of political theory, began with him.
Though there is near unanimity about his brilliance there is no consensus about him in terms of
political categorisation. Berlin described him as an ultra conservative while O’ Brien viewed him as
a liberal and pluralist opponent of the French Revolution. Harold Laski called him a liberal because
of his sympathetic attitude to the USA, Irish and Indian causes. Some saw him as a progressive
conservative, for he supported political and economic progress within the framework of England’s
established institutions. There are liberal as well as conservative elements as evident by his support
to the American revolution and his opposition to the French Revoltion.
Edmund Burke was born in Dublin in 1729, the son of a successful British protestant
attorney. His mother was a Catholic who did not change her faith and Burkes Catholic connection
provided him with an early education in practical politics. Although Catholics formed the vast
majority of the Irish population, they were cruelly oppressed by the ruling Protestant English
aristocracy. Though Burke came to identify himself ultimately with England, his Irish background
and experience always remained a powerful element in his outlook and sympathies.
In 1750 Burke went to London to prepare himself for the legal profession. But his heart was
in literature and politics rather than in law. Burke never composed a systematic treatise of politics
like Hobbes’ Leviathan or Locke’s Two treatises of Government, partly because he was a busy
parliamentarian and partly because he needed a concrete issue around which he could develop his
general principles. His political ideas cannot be found in one place but have to be gathered from his
books, speeches, essays and letters, although the Reflections will always occupy first place.
CONSERVATIVE REFORMISM
Conservatism, as philosophy dedicated to the defence of an established order or an attitude with a
defensive strategy to maintain the present statusquo Conservatism, as a mood, prefers liberty over
equality; tradition over changes, history over politics, past over present and ordered society over
society demanding changes. Conservatism is a negative philosophy which preaches resistance to
or at least wary suspicion of change. It is more than an attitude of mind or an approach to life or a
natural disposition of the human mind.
Burke’s political ideas were spread over his speeches and pamphlets, which originated in response
to specific events. He had no philosophy beyond them and had little knowledge of the history of
philosophy.
Burke, as a conservative reformer was equally opposed to Jacobitism and Jacobinism. He
was for a cautious improvement in the working of the old established institutions like church,
property etc. He was always a reformer and never a revisionary, always a conservative and never a
Tory. He sums up his own view of reform in the statement ‘ the disposition to preserve and the
ability to improve taken together would be my standard of a statesman’. He sharply distinguishes
reform from innovation, which generally derives from a selfish temper and confined views.
Whatever innovation or ‘ hot reformation’ can accomplish is bound to be cured, harsh indigested,
mixed with imprudence and injustice, and contrary to human nature and human institutions. True
reform which can be brought about only by disinterested statesman, must be early in the interest of
government, and temperate in the interest of the people, because only temperate reforms are
permanent and allow room for growth.
As a true conservative reformer, Burke was highly critical of all revolutions. Every revolution
contains some evil, Burke says, as it inevitably destroys part of the moral capital, the good will of
the community and the moral capital of future generations should be considered as a trust that must
not be treated highly. The English Revolution of 1688(The Glorious Revolution) was a revolution not
made but prevented’ because the nation was on the defensive seeking to preserve its institutions
rather than to subvert or destroy them. The monarchy was continued, and the nation kept” the
same ranks, the same order, the same privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property,
the same subordinations”, and, above all, the Revolution was followed by happy settlement.
Repudiation of Fundamental Revolutionary Principles
Burke contested the fundamental principles of the French Revolution such as the doctrines of
natural equality, popular sovereignty, right of revolution, majority government and written
constitutions. He was a firm upholder of the inequality of man and therefore of the divisions of
society into the ruler and the ruled. Burke did not believe in popular sovereignty and would not allow
the common people to participate in politics actively. In His Reflections on the French Revolution he
vigorously denounced the character and content of philosophy of Revolution. According to him, the
Revolution was undermining the existence of the state and the society and imperilling the very life of
the French nation. Burke predicated the course of the revolution with remarkable foresight as
leading to a republic, anarchy, war and military dictatorship .
CRITIQUE OF NATURAL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL CONTRACT
Burke was highly critical of Lockean doctrine of natural law, the rights of the individual and
the separation of church and the state. The only laws that he recognised were the laws of God and
the laws of a civilised society. For Burke, any parallel between the English Revolution of 1688 and
the French Revolution of 1789 was totally misleading. The former was an acceptable and desirable
change within a constitutional framework, whereas the latter was based on a rationalist and untested
theory of the Rights of Man. It was an attempt to create a new order by making a total break with
past practices.
Burke did not reject the argument of human rights except that he sought to rescue the real
right from the imagined ones. He charged the doctrine of natural rights with metaphysical
abstraction. Though Burke’s criticism of Natural Rights seemed similar to that of Bentham, there
were significant differences. Burke’s conception of human well being was not hedonistic as in the
case of Bentham Further, the philosophy of natural rights based on the new principles of liberty and
equality was not conducive to the establishment of order.
Burke’s views on religion and state exhibited both liberal and conservative perceptions. He
defended traditional practices of the established church, unless there was an intolerable abuse’ He
equated attack on the established church of England as tantamount to an attack on England’s
constitutional order. He was convinced that the established church would foster peace and
dissuaded civil discord.
Supporter of Reforms
Burke was known as a great reformer. Perhaps his most notable effort in this regard was his
attempt to reform British rule in India. It must be kept in mind that Great Britain was at this time a
major imperial power and did not always treat it colonies benevolently. In India, British rule was
particularly harsh and no more so than under the governorship of Warren Hastings because of
Hasting’s violation of human rights, he attempted to have the man impeached. What particularly
furiated Burke was Hasting’s assertion that the Indians were salves, subhumans, and that he could
therefore do as he pleased with them. In his impeachment speech to parliament. Burke asserted
against Hasting’s a principle that any Lockean or modern day liberal would commend. Burke says
the laws of morality are the same everywhere……… and there is no action . of oppression in
England that is not an act…… of oppression in Europe, Asia, Africa, and all over the world”.
This same attitude about the universality of moral law led Burke to defend the Irish Catholics
from unjust British laws directed against them. Again, Burke is best known for his defense of the
American colonies. Taking an apparently Lockean position he agreed with the colonists that
parliament had no right to tax them without their consent’
Critique of French Revolution
Burke’s Reflections on the revolution in France (1790) was the outstanding event in his
literary as well, as political career. What had started out as a discussion of the French Revolution
became a searching enquiry into the nature of reform and revolution in general, and out of this
inquiry emerged the bible of modern communism. According to Burke, the French Revolution was
not the result of deep seated historical conflicts and forces, but of wrong doctrines of philosophers
who were animated by fanatical atheism, and of vile ambitions of politicians who were driven by
opportunist lust for power. Burke is particularly vehement in his denunciation of French philosophers
and men of letters.
Burke was quick enough to realise that the French Revolution was more than an internal
French affair, that it was a “revolution of doctrine and theoretic dogma’ and he attacked the state that
emerged from it as a college of armed fanatics, for the propagation of the principles of
assassination, robbery, fraud faction, oppression and impiety”. Every revolution contains some evil,
Burk says, as it inevitably destroys part of the moral capital, the good will of the community, and the
moral capital of future generations should be considered as a trust that must not be treated lightly.
The English Revolution of 1988 was ”a revolution , not made, but prevented” because the nation
was on the defensive, seeking to reserve its institutions rather than to subvert or destroy them. The
monarchy was continued, and the nation kept’ the same ranks, the same orders, the same
privileges the same franchises the same rules for property the same subordinates’ and above all the
revolution was followed by a happy settlement. Burke contrasts the English revolution of 1688 with
the French Revolution of 1789 in which he sees but destruction , anarchy and terror.
Assessment
Burke’s importance as a political thinker lies in his insistence on the importance of the
actually existing institutions and on the evolutionary nature of any reforms to be made in them.
These reforms must be based on the realisation of the complexities of human and political life for
which pure philosophy would not do. He was pragmatic and utilitarian in his views and historical in
his method.
Burke used the historical perspective to understand politics. He considered state as a
product of historical growth, and compared it to a living organism. In his well known work,
‘Reflections on French Revolutions’ he attacked the theory of natural rights, absolute liberty,
equality, democracy, popular sovereignty, general will and abstract principles of change an
revolution based on reason. He is known as a “philosophic conservative, opposed equally to
undercharging reaction and to revolutionary change. Revolution , according to Burke, was
undesirable because it would sweep away the sound principles of political action and discard the
guidance of nature. ; Thus Reflections became the bible of conservatism to this day. Unlike his
predecessors, Burke argued the French revolutionaries were attempting to impose strict rational a
priori standards of natural right without any consideration for the real nature of society and the real
needs of human beings.
So this is all about it.
were conservatives before him conservatism as a school of political theory, began with him.
Though there is near unanimity about his brilliance there is no consensus about him in terms of
political categorisation. Berlin described him as an ultra conservative while O’ Brien viewed him as
a liberal and pluralist opponent of the French Revolution. Harold Laski called him a liberal because
of his sympathetic attitude to the USA, Irish and Indian causes. Some saw him as a progressive
conservative, for he supported political and economic progress within the framework of England’s
established institutions. There are liberal as well as conservative elements as evident by his support
to the American revolution and his opposition to the French Revoltion.
Edmund Burke was born in Dublin in 1729, the son of a successful British protestant
attorney. His mother was a Catholic who did not change her faith and Burkes Catholic connection
provided him with an early education in practical politics. Although Catholics formed the vast
majority of the Irish population, they were cruelly oppressed by the ruling Protestant English
aristocracy. Though Burke came to identify himself ultimately with England, his Irish background
and experience always remained a powerful element in his outlook and sympathies.
In 1750 Burke went to London to prepare himself for the legal profession. But his heart was
in literature and politics rather than in law. Burke never composed a systematic treatise of politics
like Hobbes’ Leviathan or Locke’s Two treatises of Government, partly because he was a busy
parliamentarian and partly because he needed a concrete issue around which he could develop his
general principles. His political ideas cannot be found in one place but have to be gathered from his
books, speeches, essays and letters, although the Reflections will always occupy first place.
CONSERVATIVE REFORMISM
Conservatism, as philosophy dedicated to the defence of an established order or an attitude with a
defensive strategy to maintain the present statusquo Conservatism, as a mood, prefers liberty over
equality; tradition over changes, history over politics, past over present and ordered society over
society demanding changes. Conservatism is a negative philosophy which preaches resistance to
or at least wary suspicion of change. It is more than an attitude of mind or an approach to life or a
natural disposition of the human mind.
Burke’s political ideas were spread over his speeches and pamphlets, which originated in response
to specific events. He had no philosophy beyond them and had little knowledge of the history of
philosophy.
Burke, as a conservative reformer was equally opposed to Jacobitism and Jacobinism. He
was for a cautious improvement in the working of the old established institutions like church,
property etc. He was always a reformer and never a revisionary, always a conservative and never a
Tory. He sums up his own view of reform in the statement ‘ the disposition to preserve and the
ability to improve taken together would be my standard of a statesman’. He sharply distinguishes
reform from innovation, which generally derives from a selfish temper and confined views.
Whatever innovation or ‘ hot reformation’ can accomplish is bound to be cured, harsh indigested,
mixed with imprudence and injustice, and contrary to human nature and human institutions. True
reform which can be brought about only by disinterested statesman, must be early in the interest of
government, and temperate in the interest of the people, because only temperate reforms are
permanent and allow room for growth.
As a true conservative reformer, Burke was highly critical of all revolutions. Every revolution
contains some evil, Burke says, as it inevitably destroys part of the moral capital, the good will of
the community and the moral capital of future generations should be considered as a trust that must
not be treated highly. The English Revolution of 1688(The Glorious Revolution) was a revolution not
made but prevented’ because the nation was on the defensive seeking to preserve its institutions
rather than to subvert or destroy them. The monarchy was continued, and the nation kept” the
same ranks, the same order, the same privileges, the same franchises, the same rules for property,
the same subordinations”, and, above all, the Revolution was followed by happy settlement.
Repudiation of Fundamental Revolutionary Principles
Burke contested the fundamental principles of the French Revolution such as the doctrines of
natural equality, popular sovereignty, right of revolution, majority government and written
constitutions. He was a firm upholder of the inequality of man and therefore of the divisions of
society into the ruler and the ruled. Burke did not believe in popular sovereignty and would not allow
the common people to participate in politics actively. In His Reflections on the French Revolution he
vigorously denounced the character and content of philosophy of Revolution. According to him, the
Revolution was undermining the existence of the state and the society and imperilling the very life of
the French nation. Burke predicated the course of the revolution with remarkable foresight as
leading to a republic, anarchy, war and military dictatorship .
CRITIQUE OF NATURAL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL CONTRACT
Burke was highly critical of Lockean doctrine of natural law, the rights of the individual and
the separation of church and the state. The only laws that he recognised were the laws of God and
the laws of a civilised society. For Burke, any parallel between the English Revolution of 1688 and
the French Revolution of 1789 was totally misleading. The former was an acceptable and desirable
change within a constitutional framework, whereas the latter was based on a rationalist and untested
theory of the Rights of Man. It was an attempt to create a new order by making a total break with
past practices.
Burke did not reject the argument of human rights except that he sought to rescue the real
right from the imagined ones. He charged the doctrine of natural rights with metaphysical
abstraction. Though Burke’s criticism of Natural Rights seemed similar to that of Bentham, there
were significant differences. Burke’s conception of human well being was not hedonistic as in the
case of Bentham Further, the philosophy of natural rights based on the new principles of liberty and
equality was not conducive to the establishment of order.
Burke’s views on religion and state exhibited both liberal and conservative perceptions. He
defended traditional practices of the established church, unless there was an intolerable abuse’ He
equated attack on the established church of England as tantamount to an attack on England’s
constitutional order. He was convinced that the established church would foster peace and
dissuaded civil discord.
Supporter of Reforms
Burke was known as a great reformer. Perhaps his most notable effort in this regard was his
attempt to reform British rule in India. It must be kept in mind that Great Britain was at this time a
major imperial power and did not always treat it colonies benevolently. In India, British rule was
particularly harsh and no more so than under the governorship of Warren Hastings because of
Hasting’s violation of human rights, he attempted to have the man impeached. What particularly
furiated Burke was Hasting’s assertion that the Indians were salves, subhumans, and that he could
therefore do as he pleased with them. In his impeachment speech to parliament. Burke asserted
against Hasting’s a principle that any Lockean or modern day liberal would commend. Burke says
the laws of morality are the same everywhere……… and there is no action . of oppression in
England that is not an act…… of oppression in Europe, Asia, Africa, and all over the world”.
This same attitude about the universality of moral law led Burke to defend the Irish Catholics
from unjust British laws directed against them. Again, Burke is best known for his defense of the
American colonies. Taking an apparently Lockean position he agreed with the colonists that
parliament had no right to tax them without their consent’
Critique of French Revolution
Burke’s Reflections on the revolution in France (1790) was the outstanding event in his
literary as well, as political career. What had started out as a discussion of the French Revolution
became a searching enquiry into the nature of reform and revolution in general, and out of this
inquiry emerged the bible of modern communism. According to Burke, the French Revolution was
not the result of deep seated historical conflicts and forces, but of wrong doctrines of philosophers
who were animated by fanatical atheism, and of vile ambitions of politicians who were driven by
opportunist lust for power. Burke is particularly vehement in his denunciation of French philosophers
and men of letters.
Burke was quick enough to realise that the French Revolution was more than an internal
French affair, that it was a “revolution of doctrine and theoretic dogma’ and he attacked the state that
emerged from it as a college of armed fanatics, for the propagation of the principles of
assassination, robbery, fraud faction, oppression and impiety”. Every revolution contains some evil,
Burk says, as it inevitably destroys part of the moral capital, the good will of the community, and the
moral capital of future generations should be considered as a trust that must not be treated lightly.
The English Revolution of 1988 was ”a revolution , not made, but prevented” because the nation
was on the defensive, seeking to reserve its institutions rather than to subvert or destroy them. The
monarchy was continued, and the nation kept’ the same ranks, the same orders, the same
privileges the same franchises the same rules for property the same subordinates’ and above all the
revolution was followed by a happy settlement. Burke contrasts the English revolution of 1688 with
the French Revolution of 1789 in which he sees but destruction , anarchy and terror.
Assessment
Burke’s importance as a political thinker lies in his insistence on the importance of the
actually existing institutions and on the evolutionary nature of any reforms to be made in them.
These reforms must be based on the realisation of the complexities of human and political life for
which pure philosophy would not do. He was pragmatic and utilitarian in his views and historical in
his method.
Burke used the historical perspective to understand politics. He considered state as a
product of historical growth, and compared it to a living organism. In his well known work,
‘Reflections on French Revolutions’ he attacked the theory of natural rights, absolute liberty,
equality, democracy, popular sovereignty, general will and abstract principles of change an
revolution based on reason. He is known as a “philosophic conservative, opposed equally to
undercharging reaction and to revolutionary change. Revolution , according to Burke, was
undesirable because it would sweep away the sound principles of political action and discard the
guidance of nature. ; Thus Reflections became the bible of conservatism to this day. Unlike his
predecessors, Burke argued the French revolutionaries were attempting to impose strict rational a
priori standards of natural right without any consideration for the real nature of society and the real
needs of human beings.
So this is all about it.
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