edmund burke reflections on the revolution in france explained

This thesis contextualizes these ideas using a contemporary debate, the Burke-Paine controversy, as Edmund Burke was the epitome of eighteenth century conservative constitutionalism in 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' while Thomas Paine’s 'Rights of Man' represented a Lockean interpretation of natural rights and equality. At first glance, the LCS appears contradictory: it supported the hierarchical status quo but fought for the voice and representation of the people and it believed that the foundation for rights was natural but also argued its demands for equal rights were drawn from Britain’s ancient unwritten constitution. Many Britons, especially the aristocracy and those in the government, feared the spread of ideas of republicanism and equality from revolutionary France and responded accordingly by oppressing the freedom of speech and association.

The LCS was a working population group fighting for universal male suffrage and annual parliaments in a decade that was wrought with internal social and governmental tension. Supposedly, this was the equality the French were in search of they were now all “ corrupt”.This thesis examines the intellectual foundation of the London Corresponding Society’s (LCS) efforts to reform Britain's Parliamentary democracy in the 1790s. Burke speaks of this chaos spreading the corruptions “that usually were the disease of wealth and power” to “all ranks of life”.

In searching for equality, France had uprooted the very institutions holding order, and with that had become wildly chaotic. With this in mind, the thought process behind Burke’s claim, that the incapability and corruption of the traditional monarch is unimportant because it has “an edifice which has answered…for ages” can be understood.įor, if he shared in the French citizens’ faith in human goodness, a government steering towards an unknown port would not be such a terrifying prospect. Reflections, published in 1790, was written in the wake of the Bastille storming at the height of the French Revolution.Įmbedded in his writing was a concept popularized by a prior philosopher, Thomas Hobbes that men must surrender themselves to established authority, in order to protect against the savagery of the natural world. His most influential work, Reflections on the Revolution in France, opposed the core values of his contemporary revolutionaries and predicted that the French Revolution would cause anarchy and bring about terror. Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish political thinker, and philosopher was the chief framer of conservatism.

Edmund burke reflections on the revolution in france explained