Czekając na generała Moncka. Źródła Burke’owskiej teorii rewolucji

• Published in: Studia prawno-ekonomiczne 2017 (105), p.107-124
• Main Author: Tulejski, Tomasz
• Format: Article
• Language: Polish
• Subjects: Political Theory; Politics; Sociology of Law
• ISSN: 0081-6841

Edmund Burke, an English statesman, a political theorist, and a philosopher is the founding father of political conservatism. His Reflections on the Revolution in France – the holy book of conservatism– is one of the best known intellectual attack against the French Revolution. However this pamphlet is also a perfect study of a revolution itself. In this article the Author examines the sources of Burke an theory of revolution and the dynamics of revolutionary process. He argues, that his thought is rooted in David Hume’s political philosophy and his philosophy of history. Perhaps the surprising fact is that Burke by formulating his political principles found it possible to profit to an even greater extent from the historical writings of Hume – his greater political enemy. But in Hume an reflections on the Great Rebellion we can find the first analysis of revolution as social, political and religious extraordinary event in modern sense. Describing the revolutionary Puritans Hume discovered, that uncontrolled, obstinate, and dangerous spirit of innovation inclined to destruction of social order. In the end, starting from the exaggerated pursuit of liberty, the nation fell into the most abject servitude. But he also observed that although revolution is triggered by some moderate powers, it is completed by radicals. Therefore reading his History of England in 1789 Burke could have foreseen the next acts of the French drama, because he realized, that French revolutionaries were similar to English ones during the Puritan Revolution. So the Author argues, that Burke an political prophecy would be impossible without Hume’s observations of revolutionary dynamics.