19. The Burkean Outlook

Moral Foundations of Politics (PLSC 118) Edmund Burke was an English politician who wrote his Reflections on the Revolution in France to express his disdain for the destructive havoc wrought by the French Revolution. As a traditionalist-conservative, he thinks about social change in a cautious and incremental way and characterizes the social contract as binding on those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are yet to be born. Studying the anti-Enlightenment differs from the study of the Enlightenment because traditional conservatives of the Burkean school reject the idea of formulating a theory upon which to base society. Their views can be more accurately characterized as attitudes or dispositions. Social change is possible, but it must reflect the thinking of “the man on the Clapham omnibus.“ Thinkers like Burke and Devlin place individuals as subordinate to society and its traditions. Therefore, the anti-Enlightenment is a rejection of both of the central tenets of the Enlightenment that have been covered in the course until now--the commitment to individual rights, and to science and reason. 00:00 - Chapter 1. The Anti-enlightenment: Edmund Burke (1729 -- 97) 07:27 - Chapter 2. The Human Condition: Fumbling in the Dark 09:07 - Chapter 3. The Value of Caution 14:48 - Chapter 4. Rights: Limited, Inherited, Not Reasoned 24:10 - Chapter 5. An Indissoluble Social Contract 35:36 - Chapter 6. Lord Devlin and The Wolfenden Report Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: This course was recorded in Spring 2010.