Reflections on the Revolution in France

Ai-May Tan. Section: 1A
Lecture notes from January 31, 2008.

(1790)
-Burke focuses on the social body as a whole. Social body is permanent, but its composition parts are transitory.
-The social body is constant, the elements (people, human) within it changes. For example, humans are born, they live, and then die..the composition parts are always transitory. So we do not really matter at all to the body. What's important is keeping the social body, the nation constant.
-Because of the unimportance of people, it is not for the people to decide anything.
-We are English, we do not read Rousseau, Voltaire..., we should refuse the idea of changing what makes English, English. By natural order, we are who we are.
-We shouldn't use our individual reasoning because it is limited and it is always changing, not constant.
-We should maintain a relationship between the king and the people as like the relationship of a father and a child.
-You can't question the order of society. By questioning the natural order of society, you will be causing the dissolvement of social link. The social link that connects the dead society, our ancestors to the living society, the present state. The link connects the invisible to the visible.
-By the order of society, we each have our appointed, pre-destined role.
-Ownership of lands gives you right to rule the country.
-Do not contemplate the state that we are born into because you are a temporary matter to a constant body.
For example, when a child questions the father about the order of the family. Once you question, you will be cast out to torture and unhappiness.
-Anyone who says that common people should be on the top will be reversing the natural order. There's a reason why the order exist the way it is. We are bound by a social contract that gives us certain moral values. The nobility has to take care of those who are below them. So there is no need for the people below the nobility to question anything.
-Asserts the need for mutual cooperation rather than individualism.
-For a farmer to improve himself through education is challenging the role that he was born into.
-Individual pursuits of wealth and education changes the natural structure of society.