Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was a British-Irish philosopher, parliamentarian and political writer.

Life

Edmund Burke was born on 12 January 1729 on Arran Quay, Dublin, as the son of a Protestant lawyer at the Irish Court, Richard Burke, and his Catholic wife Mary Nagle. Edmund and his two brothers were raised in the established Church of Ireland; his only sister Juliana, however, was brought up in the Catholic tradition, although she, too, was baptised in a Protestant church. This religious mixture in his parent’s marriage was to become of great significance in his adult life, shaping his thoughts in particular with regard to the political questions of Catholics and Ireland.

At an early age Burke was sent to his mother’s Catholic relatives in Ballyduff in County Cork where he spent most of his childhood. When he was about eleven years old he came back home and attended a school in Dublin for about a year. Then he and his brothers were sent to a boarding school in Ballitore in County Kildare.

Burke was fifteen when he left Ballitore school to attend Trinity College Dublin. There he and some fellow students founded a literary club (’Academy of Belles Lettres’) and later literary weekly called ’The Reformer’. In February 1748 Burke graduated.

Two years later, conforming to his father’s wish, he began to study law at Middle Temple in London. Given his preference for writing, he abandoned his juridicial studies in 1755. One year later Burke published his first book A Vindication of Natural Society.

In 1757 he married Jane Mary Nugent, the daughter of an Irish Catholic doctor, with whom he was to have two sons, Richard and Christopher (who died as a chlid).

From 1759 to 1764 Burke worked as private secretary to William Hamilton, the Irish Chief Secretary, in Ireland. Back in London, he became Rockingham’s private secretary in 1765 and was elected to the House of Commons, which determined his career in politics. (Rockingham was the leading figure of a group of former Whigs whose party, little earlier, had been broken by King George III.) Bringing in his talents as a writer it was Burke who elaborated the political vision of his party the Rockingham Whigs (“Old Whigs“). He gave many speeches at parliament and became a famous and influential figure although he never held any office for a long time. Later, after the party had split, he publically broke with both sections, Charles James Fox and the Whigs, and continued writing on politics independently.

FInally, Burke retired in 1794 and spent his last days away from political action, although he never stopped writing.

He died on 9 July 1797 at the age of 68 in Beaconsfield, England.

Political Work and Thought

Throughout the years, as a member of parliament and as a political writer, Burke was concerned with a great variety of issues among which were Britain’s rule in Ireland, North America and India. However, his critique of the French Revolution was to remain connected to his name. Although Burke produced a vast amount of writings, he did not impart a school of political thought that outlasted him.

---

Burke entered Parliament as a representative of the parish Wendover in Buckinghamshire in 1765 and for Bristol in 1774. When he was MP for Bristol Burke expressed the opinion that a member of Parliament is the representative but not the mouthpiece of his electors i.e. the representative has to make his own decision, with the general good of the nation in mind – and maybe even against his electors opinion.

He also took part in the discussion about George III’s attempt to strengthen the crown’s power over the executive which had been lost under his predecessors. Burke opposed the king’s position in his 1770 pamphlet Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, stating that George’s demand was against the spirit of the constitution.

He was very interested in the controversy about the American colonies and he was a committed orator in the discussions about the American war going on in the 1770s. In his speeches he promoted liberties for the colonies (like abolishing the tea tax) and thus opposed Lord North (see Frederick North) who was in power at that time.

Burke always tried to support the interests of his home country Ireland which was under English supervision and which held only an Anglo-Protestant minority and a Catholic majority of people. Promoting Irish interests and suggesting the relaxation of economic and penal regulations as well as legislative independence fuelled suspicions of Burke being a closet Catholic. This led to problems with his supporters in Bristol whom he was to represent in parliament and finally resulted in Burke’s resignation in 1780.

In the 1780s Burke turned to the conflict in India where the administration in the form of the British East India Company had increased their commercial activities and their power so much that an inquiry was made by a committee of the English government of which Burke became a member. When his East India Bill was defeated in 1783 Burke instigated the impeachment of Bengal’s former governor Warren Hastings in 1787, an act which is nowadays often seen as an error of judgment on Burke’s part because Hastings was cleared later.

Burke also condemned the French Revolution (1789) as a result of the dangers of democracy and a threat to tradition and values that society had painfully acquired throughout the years, thus contrasting it with the English government as a role model. Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France were greeted with indignation because the reactions in England concerning the French Revolution were generally very positive and the following parliamentary debates about it ended Burke’s friendship with Charles James Fox in 1791.

Philosophy

Burke’s way of thinking consists of the aspects of religion, politics and philosophical ideas. Shaped by his upbringing in an impoverished Ireland, Burke believed that everything man does is geared towards improvement which man can achieve through science and the arts as well as through moral behaviour and economic development. Since the power to reach improvement lies within the hands of the educated, the rich and the powerful, they hold the responsibility to bring improvement to the common people in church, state and education.

Burke also believed that man’s spiritual and moral life is connected to the ways of nature and the universe and that the self-restraint and self-criticism of those is mirrored in man’s life. Nature also brings about progress because God shows himself in nature and inspires man to transfer the wisdom found in nature to society. This implies that progress/improvement is accumulated over time and thus that society is the result of traditions. Social change is bound to happen because of this progressive structure but it has to happen gradually and not radically like in the French Revolution which – according to Burke – destroyed the achievements of society. Another aspect he despised about the Revolution was that it took place to achieve certain aims (equality, liberty) but Burke believed that progress as such should be encouraged without pursuing any special ends because the existing order and nature would lead to an ideal state in the end.

His works are not based on one particular theory but rather on connecting his thoughts with specific topics. The only factor pervading all of Burke’s ideas is reason, mostly mixed with philosophical and religious influences.

Some Works

A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)

A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

An Account of the European Settlements (1757, co-author)

An Abridgement of English History (c.1757-62)

Annual Register (1758-1765, principal ‘conductor’)

American Taxation (1774)

Conciliation with America (1775)

Fox's East India Bill (1783)

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs (1791)

Letters on a Regicide Peace (1795-7)

A Letter to a Noble Lord (1796)

A Letter to William Elliot (1795)

Sources

Ayling, Stanley: Edmund Burke. His Life and Opinions. London: John Murray, 1988.

Harris, Ian, "Edmund Burke". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Stanford University. 13 Dec. 2009 <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2008/entries/burke/>.

Hill, B.W. (ed.): Edmund Burke. On Government, Politics and Society. Sussex: The Harvester Press, 1975. 7-64.

“Edmund Burke.” A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. Ed. John William Cousin. n.p. 1910. 28 Nov 2009 <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13240/13240-h/13240-h.htm>.

"Edmund Burke." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 11 Nov. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/85362/Edmund-Burke>.