Edmund Burke and Rhetorical Ideas

Burke was strongly against ideology that flows from the contractual, the scientific, or the rational principles of reason. These cannot capture the varied and organic nuances and subtleties of life. His writings indicate that circumstances are far too complicated, far too messy and human, to be neatly summed up. This mistrust of abstract political systems, quasi-metaphysical principles founded upon reason, seeks a good of society as a good in itself, not tradition for its own sake. The accumulated wisdom of society, its good to be passed down through the generations, is confirmed by trials of experience. Humans are hardly capable, Burke thought, of reaching in one lifetime the fullness of understanding required to summarily dismiss the customs and institutions of society, no matter how brilliant their capacity, words, and... [read full story]