Edmund Burke and the English Enlightenment

This paper purports to reexamine, in light of recent reinterpretations of the Enlightenment, the nature of Edmund Burke's thought and its relation to the Enlightenment. Burke was born and died in the Eighteenth Century. However, historians tend to regard him as a man not of his own times. He is considered to be a conservative thinker who opposed the Enlightenment, owing to his criticisms of the French Enlightenment and the French Revolution. This view, however, does not account for his frequent use of enlightenment terms, such as reason, liberty, toleration, etc., in writings and speeches. If Burke’s usage of such terms was not paradoxical, how can this apparent inconsistency in his thought be explained? Recent research on the Enlightenment helps to clarify the relation between Burke and the Enlightenment. First, historians now tend to emphasize the plurality, rather than the unity, of the Enlightenment. Second, the 'sentiments' was gradually acknowledged as an important element in the mind of the Enlightenment and, therefore, the advocacy of 'feelings' can no longer be deemed as contradicting Enlightenment values. Last, and most important, has been the discovery of the Enlightenment in England, which embraced empiricism, natural rights and tolerance as its major characteristics. These are also what Burke advocated. In term of these findings, it seems reasonable to argue that Burke, despite his vehement criticism of the Enlightenment, was still very much a man of that movement, albeit the conservative wing of it, the English Enlightenment.