Edmund Burke
Anglo-Irish statesman, political theorist and conservative philosopher (1729–1797)
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Edmund Burke was an influential Anglo-Irish politician and writer from the 18th century who shaped conservative political thinking through his writings and speeches on government, society, and ethics. His ideas about tradition, social order, and the limits of radical change continue to influence political philosophy and debate today.
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Edmund Burke PC (12 January [NS] 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who, after relocating to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party. He is mainly remembered for his support of the cause of the American Revolutionaries, and for his later opposition to the French Revolution. The latter led to his becoming the leading figure within the conservative faction of the Whig party <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Edmund+Burke">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Quotes
- “The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.”
- “"War," says Machiavel, "ought to be the only study of a prince;" and by a prince he means every sort of state, however constituted. "He ought," says this great political doctor, "to consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes ability to execute military plans." A meditation on the conduct of political societies made old Hobbes imagine that war was the state of nature.”
- “I could show, that the same faction has, in one reign, promoted popular seditions, and, in the next, been a patron of tyranny; I could show, that they have all of them betrayed the public safety at all times, and have very frequently with equal perfidy made a market of their own cause, and their own associates. I could show how vehemently they have contended for names, and how silently they have passed over things of the last importance.”
Article
Edmund Burke (/bɜːrk/; 12 January [NS] 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, and politician who is widely credited as the founder of the cultural and political philosophy of conservatism. Regarded as one of the most influential conservative thinkers and political writers of the 18th century, Burke spent the majority of his career in Great Britain and was elected as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1766 to 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party. His writings played a significant role in influencing public views and opinions in both Great Britain and France following the French Revolution in 1789, and he remains a major figure in modern conservative circles.
Burke was a proponent of underpinning virtues with manners in society and of the importance of religious institutions for the moral stability and good of the state. These views were expressed in his satirical work, A Vindication of Natural Society (1756). He also criticised the actions of the British government towards the American colonies, including its taxation policies. Burke supported the rights of the colonists to resist metropolitan authority, although he opposed the attempt to achieve independence. He is particularly remembered for his long-term support for Catholic emancipation, his opposition to the French Revolution, and leading the attempt at impeachment of Warren Hastings from the East India Company. In 1774, Burke was elected a member of Parliament for Bristol.
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1729 births1797 deaths18th-century Anglo-Irish people18th-century English male writers18th-century English philosophers18th-century English writers18th-century Irish male writers18th-century Irish philosophers18th-century Irish writersAlumni of Trinity College DublinAnglican philosophersBritish anti–death penalty activists