Burke Analysis

by Kerrie Stam, June 2014

300 words

1 page

essay

Thesis:

Burke’s principle of radical philosophy assumes that rights of men are naturally bestowed upon them, as opposed to Aristotle’s school of thought that says men are political animals created by nature to exist in structured political institutions.

Reasons:

Before politics was institutionalized or during the ‘state of nature’ not any government existed, so individuals were naturally autonomous and would self-regulate themselves

When institutions were then set-up, man could still not transfer complete autonomy to political structures known as governments.

Men could only enter into a contract in which his natural right to govern him became the natural right to engage in equal measure with other persons in the civil society known as government.

Analysis

These reasons make a lot of sense in that they represent modern thinking. According to Burke’s philosophy, natural man has the right to mould their destiny into the shape of their ideals. They determine what their future has to look like. This school of thought is a typical example of modern thinking in which men are not victims of fate but victims of pro-action. By creating systems of governments, men are typically re-affirming their role to charting a future governed by principles and not proxies.

Passage

God forms the epicenter of Burke’s arguments in this passage. The understanding that authority is a trust granted by God is anything but ideal in the sense that authority is unconditional and unreserved. No individual has the right to castigate other persons. Burke posits that a faultless democracy would be the most blatant entity in the world. It is fundamental, then, that individuals must not endure hardship in order to imagine that their will, any more than that of kings, is the pattern of right and wrong.

To execute political autonomy or any fragment of it, the people must pour out from themselves of all the selfish hunger, which minus God or religion it would be impossible for them to achieve. They should become conscious that they exercise perhaps in a higher link of order of delegation, the authority, which to be legitimate should be according to that external immutable law, in which will as well as reason correspond. Simply put, all political authority comes from God, not by any exceptional celestial act, but by simply as a result of God having created man as a political animal in the first …

Download will start in 20 seconds

Disclaimer

Note that all papers are meant for inspiration and reference purposes only! Do not copy papers in full or in part. Papers are provided by other students, who hold the copyright for the content of those papers. All papers were submitted to TurnItIn and will show up as plagiarism if you try to submit any part of them as your own work. Assignment Lab can not guarantee the quality of the user generated content such as sample papers above.