Reflections On The Revolution In France

Locate key points in his letter where Burke glorifies institutions that are counter-revolutionary: monarchy, aristocracy, religious, etc. What descriptions are surprisingly sympathetic, given his support of previous revolutions, like the revolution in America?

Reflections on the Revolution in France predicts the French Revolution would devolve into a military state: in retrospect, knowing the outcome of the French Revolution (or after researching it), how do Burke’s predictions come to pass? What argument(s) does he use to support his prediction?

One institution Burke refers to in Reflections on the Revolution in France is the church. Describe Burke’s horror over the confiscation of the church’s land in France: to Burke, why should the church retain this land? What important roles does the church serve in France (or in England)?

Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France establishes him as one of the leading conservatives in political philosophy. He argues that (in the case of James II), a man can be a bad king, but that does not make the office of king bad: how does his theory apply to the radical changes the Assembly made with Louis XVI?

As a tract on political conservatism, Reflections on the Revolution in France suggests that France will regret disregarding centuries of wisdom and tradition in favor of radical, unformed ideas. Explore the concept of abstraction by looking up the word: pick one abstraction Burke mentions and explain his chain of logic. How will that abstraction end up failing the French in practice?

Burke came to the general conclusion that great power ultimately corrupts men, especially any individual man. To what extent does Burke believe the revolutionaries misunderstand man’s relationship to law? What rights have to be sacrificed, in part, to have an orderly society?

Burke refers to innovation as “selfish,” the result of “confined views” and “posterity" as a success when it looks back on its ancestry. Establish what Burke means by this turn of phrase: why would he use such contradictory wording to make his point about the folly of the French Revolution’s premise?

Reflections on the Revolution in France offers a parallel between nobility and civility: Burke maintains the ideas of the old guard (tradition, honor) equate with a well-run, well-meaning and well-ordered society. Pinpoint Burke’s lamentations on the loss of such a society: what periods of history does he seem to describe? For Burke, what parallels exist between being raised in elite society and the ability to govern properly?