POLS 250 Lecture 1: Edmund Burke
Document Summary
Sympathetic towards the american revolution progressive thinkers. Rights are inherited, they are not abstract. British have exasperated situation and have caused for these abstract claims by the. Its not the americans that are revolutionaries, but the british. Opposed to the french revolution bringing out the worst elements in humans. Described as cowardly, savage, cutting themselves of from history and tradition. He describes the king as being innocent. When thinking about the french revolution he thinks about europe as a whole. Motto: (cid:862)at o(cid:374)(cid:272)e p(cid:396)ese(cid:396)(cid:448)e a(cid:374)d (cid:396)efo(cid:396)(cid:373)(cid:863) prof. harvey mansfield. Concerned with how we ought to collective live together: 2 major components: backward looking exercise to try and diagnose how things came to be how they are, forward looking exercising to prescribe how we can change the status quo into something more equitable. General will can transform us from the status quo to to the more equal place we want. Must both (1) come from all and (2) apply to all.