Edmund Burke’s aims in publishing Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Document Type Article
This paper is an un-published pre-print and has not been peer reviewed. It is a working paper.
Abstract
In this paper, I examine three critical aspects of Burke's beliefs, principles, and political judgment at the time of the outbreak of the French Revolution and examine how they assist in explaining different and less public strands in his motivation to publish the Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790): his views on religion and in particular his attitude to Dissenters; the state of his political career and inf1uence in 1789 as a semi-detached member of the Foxite Whigs; and finally how he saw the publication of the ideas and arguments in the Reflections as a necessary step to maintain and affirm the consistency of his political philosophy.