CHAPTER 19
Burke and Hegel:
Conservatism and Absolute Idealism
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Edmund Burke was born in Ireland in 1729. His father was a
lawyer who hoped that the son would follow the same path. As
a youth he was sickly and spent several years in rural Ireland with
his mother’s relatives, who, like her, were Roman Catholics. He
was educated at Trinity College in Dublin and graduated in 1748.
He briefly entertained the thought of remaining at Trinity as a
teacher, but felt that the life of a university professor was insular
and stagnant. Armed with a classical education he left Ireland for
London, ostensibly to study law, but began to write instead. His
first major work A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin o f Our
Ideas o f the Sublime and the Beautiful was published in 1756 and
was well received even though he criticized the prevailing
opinion of absolute standards of beauty. His most important
work, Reflections on the Revolution in France, contains some of
the most important elements of his political philosophy.
In 1757, while living in London, he married, as his father had,
a Roman Catholic. During his political career his position on
Catholicism and Ireland was often criticized for being parochial,
rather than principled because of the religion of his mother and
his wife. Jane Burke, however, was a quiet and retiring woman
who took no part in the political activities of her husband. During
this period Burke moved slowly from literary pursuits towards
a political career. In 1759 he became secretary to a minor official
in the Whig party, rose in the party, and in 1766 took a seat in
Parliament. He remained in Parliament for thirty years and his
speeches, letters, and the Reflections, while not a systematic
presentation, contain his political philosophy on virtually every
important subject. He has become known as the “Father of
Modem Conservatism.”
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