Notes on Edmund Burke’s, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Key Question: Are there moral obligations that the present owes to the past, to the future?

1. Conservatism versus Liberalism versus Reactionism

- Tradition is good, sometimes small change (adjustment) is necessary to maintain tradition. 

- The Glorious Revolution of 1688 and American Revolution of 1776 versus French Revolution of 1789

- The central tenets of conservatism include wisdom of tradition, human imperfection, organic perfection of social institutions, goodness of heirarchy and authority, sacredness of property rights and wealth inequality.

2. Dangers of abstraction - society is a complex organic whole that we tamper with at our risk.

3. Liberal versus Conservative view of rights

- Rights as universal, unconditional, existing prior to and independent of human society versus existing only within and as an expression of the inner, historical tapestry of social relations. (53)

- Rights as connected to social relationships (57)

- Abstract view of rights undermines restraint, the key civil right. (57)

4. Against radical equality, change - the example of Le Terreur - The Reign of Terror, during the French Revolution. 

- Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, of which 2,639 were in Paris

- M. Robespierre, in February 1794 in a speech explained the necessity of terror:

If the basis of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the patrie [homeland, fatherland].

5. Aristocracy and Hierarchy are good

- Virtue is the only rational criterion for rule.

- Wealth inequality is good - supports investment in the future.

- We have a natural inclination to respect aristocracy

6. The Principle of Caution 

- society is too complex to be able to control, reengineer, remake. (58)

- New insights into morality are unlikely (59)

- slow is beautiful (63)

7. Limits to Rationality, science 

- too simplistic to serve as a critique of the status quo.(59)

- there is wisdom in prejudices (59)

- Religion is natural in humans, society cannot be secularized (60)

8. The Social Contract is intergenerational

- The world does not belong per se to the living. (61)

- Cannot be broken like a commercial contract (62)

1/31 Revolution and Counterrevolution

Texts for this class

1. The Great Political Theories, Section II,
pp. 48-68

Recommended
Documentary below on the Haitian Revolution

1/29 The Social Contract

Readings for this class

Jean Jacques Rousseau 

& Marquis de Condorcet

in Michael Curtis (ed.), The Great Political Theories, From the French Revolution to Modern Times, pp. 18-40.

Notes on Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), The Social Contract (1762)

What are Rights?

A modern formulation: Rights are entitlements (not) to perform certain actions, or (not) to be in certain states; or entitlements that others (not) perform certain actions or (not) be in certain states. Rights dominate modern understandings of what actions are permissible and which institutions are just. Rights structure the form of governments, the content of laws, and the shape of morality as it is currently perceived. To accept a set of rights is to approve a distribution of freedom and authority, and so to endorse a certain view of what may, must, and must not be done. The Liberal view of governments is that rights precede governments, and so act as a limit on their power. [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

Human Freedom as central value: Rights as Moral conditions which precede the creation of political society. Defining feature of Liberalism: the primacy of the Individual. (18)

State of Nature - a conceptual device for making sense of the idea that people enter into society in a voluntary, rational manner; SON as a place which lacks morality and politics. 

The State as having a monopoly on the the use of force.

The Social Contract, an ‘act of association’ which is both moral and political

Political Contract: 

An account of the origins of government and our political obligations

(a) as a contract which establishes society (taking individuals out of the ‘state of nature’

(b) as establishing the state (transferring power to a governing entity)

Moral Contract: 

An account of the founding of the moral code which regulates the behavior of citizens and the concept of what it means to be a moral person.

From natural liberty (to do whatever I wish, and grab whatever I can keep) to civil liberty 

Examples of civil rights include the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to government services, the right to a public education, and the right to use public facilities.

The First Amendment to the Constitution protects five basic freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, free- dom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom to petition the government. These civil liberties are the cornerstone of our democracy.

The General Will - the “general welfare” - represents the common interest of all citizens. the problem of factionalism (22)

The social order as creating a new kind of interdependency of otherwise independent individuals. (26)

Liberty and Equality (27) There should be a baseline level of equality to maintain individual autonomy.

The Threats of Corruption (31)

Lack of public spiritedness 

Materialism, avarice, greed

Concept of Consent (33)

Need for religious tolerance for civil peace (34)

Condorcet (1743-1794)

Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (1793-4)

White Supremacy (35)

Education as the great equalizer

1/24 Origins of Philosophy and Plato's Allegory of Goodness

Reading assignments for class on Thurs. Jan 24th

1. Plato's Allegory of the Cave from Republic, Book VII.

2.  Plato's dialogue called Apology which recounts the trial of Socrates.

Guidelines for engaging the reading assignment

In your Book of Questions:

1. Write down any words or concepts you do not understand, look up information about each one and try to distill it into a definition or description to write in your journal.

2. What is the argument being presented? What are the assumptions? What is the conclusion? What is being used to support an assertion? Try to write down, however rough it is, your sense of how the reasoning is working.

3. What's a question this reading raises for you? If you don't have any questions, the thinking hasn't started. Go back and reread it if this happens to you. Keep thinking about it until you have a question. Write down your question and a short explanation of why this question interests you.