Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
Class Notes
- legitimacy of government
- not based on divine right (23)
- not popular election (23)
- tradition that works?
- Glorious RevolutionGlorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
[[Burke]] thought the Glorious Revolution was legitimate, because it did not attempt to overthrow the government, just one ruler ([[Burke, Reflections on the Revolution]])
was ok b/c it kept the traditional structures
- Glorious RevolutionGlorious Revolution
- conflicting interests lead to deliberate, moderate change
- liberty
- requires context to know if liberty is a good or not
- e.g. a murderer's liberation from prison is not good
- what restraints are there on freedom?
- requires context to know if liberty is a good or not
- "We don't want corruption, but we also don't want incompetence." (Selah H.)
Summary
Burke wrote a letter explaining his view on the French Revolution to his correspondent. He strongly disagreed with the revolutionary actions, as well as the revolutionary sympathies of those who wished to bring the revolutionary spirit to England. He spent a substantial amount of time discussing the ideas of Richard Price, who thought that people had the right to choose their own leaders, to remove them from office for misconduct, and to form their own government. Burke used the English people as an example, and showed that they had none of these rights. For some of those rights, they never had them, and for others, they gave up those rights when they selected a hereditary king. He thought that Price was giving people authority that they never had, and this would disrupt the peace and tranquility of the nation. Rather, Burke preferred the peaceful successional monarchy that England had over the transient government of France.