GOVT 1001 - Topic #3

Edmund Burke and Conservatism

Edmund Burke lived between _______

**1729 – 1797**

Edmund Burke is usually regarded as the founder of _______

modern conservative thought.

Edmund Burke, was the passionate defender of the _______

“ancient principles” of his forebears.

Edmund Burke by all accounts however, he is the _______

“modern founder of political conservatism,”

Burke belonged to the Whig party and championed the cause of the American colonies _______

both before and during the Revolutionary War.

Like Rousseau, Burke is a conscious opponent of the idea that progress will come through the application of________, but unlike Rousseau, he denies that the alternative is to __________, based on abstract ideas of nature, freedom, or equality.

i\] human reason

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ii\] establish political society on fresh foundations

Burke's most famous essay was *_______*

*Reflections on the Revolution in France and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to That Event (1790)*

Burkes famous essay was a passionate critic who denounced the _______

radical ends of French revolutionaries.

Burke cautioned against _______ and held up the British constitution as a model which, provided for _______

i\] radical change

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ii\] responsible government reform.

Burke addressed critics of his _______ by reiterating his contention that all members of civil society live with an _______, and that other moral obligations are not a matter of choice in a _______.

i\] anti-revolutionary tracts

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ii\] incumbent duty to constitutional fidelity

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iii\] divinely ordered world.

The five core elements / five fundamental tenants of conservatism are:

1. Resistance to change

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2. Reverence for tradition and a distrust of human reason.

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3. Rejection of the use of government to improve the human condition—ambivalence regarding governmental activity for other purposes.

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4. Preference for individual freedom but willingness to limit freedom to maintain traditional values.

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5. Anti-egalitarian—distrust of human nature

Burke proposes instead a respect for history and tradition, provided that the _______

content of such tradition is morally sound.

Burke says - The mere analysis of politics as a traditional activity is itself clearly insufficient unless the _______

traditions themselves are given some specific substance.

It is Burke’s task to recommend not only a style of politics, but also _______

the features of society which, such a style should uphold.

Burke’s political theory is underpinned by the moral values which, _______

he believes that politics should pursue and preserve.

Modern conservatism comes about largely as a reaction to_____. Long-standing customs were violently being overturned, and conservatives saw the need for ______ if stability and civility were to be maintained.

i\] the French Revolution

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ii\] protecting these traditions.

 In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke realized that by ______, by making change for the sake of change, or even for the sake of progress, the results would be _______

i\] radically altering society

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ii\] worse than the protested wrongs.

Edmund Burke predicted the horrors of the _______. You cannot destroy institutions and erect others in a vacuum. Institutions grow out of _______

i\] French Revolution and was right.

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ii\] the customs and history of a civilization.

Given Burke’s attack on _______ and his preference for “philosophy in action," Burke’s writings are concerned with _______.

i\] reason and abstract speculation

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ii\] particular problems and not theoretical analysis.

Burke’s political perspective, his moral theory, and his belief in the religious basis of society, have to be ________, rather than being found presented in ________

i\] gleaned from his writings

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ii\] a formal and systematic way.

It is in Edmund Burke’s response to various events that his principles emerge, both of ________

method and of morality.

To consider principles apart from circumstances is for him (Burke) an idle, abstract exercise, but equally, to discuss circumstances without the guidance of principles is to _________

divorce politics from its moral base.

Burke’s belief in the aristocracy, as that rank in society which gives ________ the subordinate ranks, arises from his view that the aristocracy above all identify their own interests with the ________.

i\] its direction and protects

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ii\] good of society generally.

(Burke)(Aristocracy) Arising out of the natural hierarchy of society, they develop_______

a sense of duty rather than a desire for domination.

(Burke) (Aristocracy) Their role is to lead and use their strength, intelligence and wealth for _________

the good of the community.

(Burke)(Aristocracy) Playing its proper role, the aristocracy through its leadership integrates the ________

interests of all groups and ensures the harmony of the whole.

The leading idea emerging from Burke’s writings was that society is _______

a vast and complicated historical product which may not be tinkered with at will like a machine

(Burke) Society : it is a repository of collective human wisdom to be regarded with reverence, and ________

if reformed at all it must be with due respect for the continuity of its traditions.

(Burke) A political community is made by history, a bond between men which makes free government possible; that the social organism has its "natural aristocracy" which the

commoner sort of men must and do, in a healthy society, respect; that general rules and abstract principles are no help in politics.

Burke - If government fails in the task of leadership, _______

then the people are usually sound judges of such failure.

(Burke)(Leadership and Social Unrest) **-** Their feelings are good reason to ______

believe that something is a miss.

(Burke)(Leadership and Social Unrest) Popular caprice rarely causes _______ and the people desire order, and if they express their discontent, it is not from a passion for attack, but from ________

i\] turmoil

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ii\] an impatience of suffering.

(Burke)(Leadership and Social Unrest) **-**The ability and wisdom of a government is fairly tested by the ____________

response it gains from the people to whom it is responsible.

(Burke) (Established institutions and politics)

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Politics is not essentially concerned with _______, not something to be logically reduced or deduced, compared with nature, or designed to achieve _______

i\] the origins of society or government

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ii\] utopian or theoretical reforms.

(Burke) (Established institutions and politics)

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The political arrangements have _______

grown over time and they exist now.

(Burke) (Established institutions and politics)

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The question to be asked is simply whether they are adapted to the people within the _______

social and moral limits of what is possible and desirable to do

(Burke) (Established institutions and politics)

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Established institutions thus have a presumptive right; perfect they may not be, in

need of modification they may be, but their overall evolution need not be called into question.

(Burke) (Established institutions and politics)

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The role of politics is normally _______

preservative.

The French Revolution was in _______

1789

The 1789 Revolution in France convinced Burke that it was different from the constitutional struggles of _______ which attempted to reform in order to preserve.

England in 1688 or the American War of Independence (1776-1783)

(Burke) The French Revolution was an attempted overthrow of _______

the whole basis of society.

Burke saw the likelihood of catastrophe if disorder based on abstract rights replacing _______

order based on precedence was not, sooner or later, crushed.

(Burke) Such violent anger running out of control needed _______

strong rule to restrain it.

The revolution in France, as he saw it, was the spawn of an anti-Christian Enlightenment and therefore _______

an attack on a civilization whose basis was Christianity.

(Burke) If the Christian religion “is destroyed, nothing can be saved, or is worth saving,” because ________

“on that religion, according to our mode, all our laws and institutions stand as upon their base”.

Burke claimed that the revolution went wrong because its________; he related this mistake to the outlook of the philosophers, the political rationalists whose method lacked realism in an era where ________

i\] leaders tried to scrap an entire political system and put a new one in its place overnight.

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ii\] abstractness is fatal and the non-doctrinaire approach is vitally necessary.

(Burke) The idea, not that human conditions might be improved, but that human nature might be reshaped, is an affront to ________

God who created man and nature, as well as being a matter of political folly and moral arrogance.

(Burke) People cannot overthrow their political, moral or divine order and set themselves up as ________.

To do so is to elevate pride, vanity, and conceit above the Christian virtues of ___________.

i\] autonomous, perfectable, self-created individuals.

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ii\] humility, affection and dignity.

In Burke’s own view of society, the instinct and duty of mankind are brought into harmony through their _________.

membership of family, group and community.

(Burke) For the revolutionary, the instinct of man has to be crushed in the name of a ________

higher moral perfection.

To Burke two human needs were evident above all: _________

history and religion.

(Burke) Man is a religious animal who, if he did not have Christianity, would turn ________

perforce to some other and probably less satisfactory faith

He is a social animal, who would be no more than a beast if he were cut off from the _____. Reverence toward God and toward the social order are therefore the two great duties, and they are _________

i\] fabric of ancient custom and tradition that sustains him

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ii\] linked, for history is the revelation of God's purpose.