Political Ideas in Conflict

Transcription

1 Political Ideas in Conflict Week 4 Edmund Burke Reflections on the Revolution in France Seminar Notes 21/02/2014 Tutor: Gorkem Altinors ldxga5@nottingham.ac.uk Office Hour: Friday 2 3 p.m. C14b / L&SS 0

2 Edmund Burke Any questions about the lecture? Essay Title: Burke is a conservative thinker and therefore opposed to change. DISCUSS Discuss Investigate or examine by argument; sift and debate; give reasons for and against. Also examine the implications. 1

3 Intro Reflections on the Revolution in France He favoured 1688 and the American Revolution but not 1640 and the French Revolution. Why? FOR: constitutionality, peace, stability, tradition, continuity, limited change, organicism AGAINST: dissolution of government, popular uprising, radical change, instability, new beginnings, first principles, rational reform 2

4 Extract 1 What is the main theme of the extract? What does it tell you about Burke s views on that theme? How does it relate to the essay title? In most questions of state, there is a middle. There is something else than the mere alternative of absolute destruction or unreformed existence. This is, in my opinion, a rule of profound sense and ought never to depart from the mind of an honest reformer. 3

5 Extract 2 To make a government requires no great prudence. Settle the seat of power, teach obedience, and the work is done. To give freedom is still more easy. It is not necessary to guide; it only requires to let go the rein. But to form a free government, that is, to temper together these opposite elements of liberty and restraint in one consistent work, requires much thought, deep reflection, a sagacious, powerful, and combining mind. This I do not find in those who take the lead in the National Assembly. 4

6 Extract 3 I would not exclude alteration but even when I changed, it should be to preserve. I should be led to my remedy by a great grievance. In what I did, I should follow the example of our ancestors. I would make the reparation as nearly as possible in the style of the building. A politic caution, a guarded circumspection, a moral rather than a complexional timidity were among the ruling principles of our forefathers in their most decided conduct. Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind. 5

7 Extract 4 (cont.) A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views...[120] the people of England well know, that the idea of inheritance furnishes a sure principle of conservation, and a sure principle of transmission; without at all excluding a principle of improvement. It leaves acquisition free; but it secures what it acquires...by a constitutional policy, working after the pattern of nature, we hold, we transmit our government and our privileges, in the same manner in which we enjoy and transmit our property and our lives. The institutions of policy, the goods of fortune, the gifts of Providence, are handed down, to us and from us, in the same course and order (next slide) 6

8 (cont.) Extract 4 Our political system is placed in a just correspondence and symmetry with the order of the world, and with the mode of existence decreed to a permanent body composed of transitory parts; wherein, by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young, but in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenour of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression. Thus, by preserving the method of nature in the conduct of the state, in what we improve we are never wholly new; in what we retain we are never wholly obsolete... Burke, Reflections, p

9 Extract 5 Nothing is a due and adequate representation of a state that does not represent its ability as well as its property. But as ability is a vigorous and active principle, and as property is sluggish, inert, and timid, it never can be safe from the invasion of ability unless it be, out of all proportion, predominant in the representation. It must be represented, too, in great masses of accumulation, or it is not rightly protected 8

10 Extract 6 Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure- but the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico, or tobacco, or some other such low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest, and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on with other reverence, because it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born. 9

11 Burke s Political Principles Acting Prudentially Acting Cautiously Seeking moderation Protecting property Resisting democracy Promoting the good and not the right Respecting Tradition Valuing Prejudice What does Burke mean when he says that society represents a union of past, present, and future generations? Why is the security of private property so important to a wellgoverned state? Why is it more important to secure what is good than what is right? 10

12 Thank you! Have a nice weekend! 11