Reflections on the Revolution in France - Burke

Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France was written to convey an 'anti-enlightenment' view to the public. Burke was a royalist and monarchist and so supported the idea that social order is very important in a society. He was completely against the idea of the French Revolution but he was not anti-revolution as he supported the American Revolution. Burke believed that the French approached the revolution in a way that was going to cause total disruption to the society. I will discuss some of the ideas that comes across in Burke's book on social order and how tradition is a main aspect of maintaining a stable society free from enlightenment and individualistic ideas. 

Social order is described like a tree; the main section and the branches are all connected to each other. Hence the idea that inheritance should only flow through a lineage. Similarly to how the throne is passed onto the eldest. The rights that are entailed from one generation will continue onto the next. For example, if someone's parents were not given the right to vote, then they won't be able to as well. This chain of inheritable lineage is unbreakable - which could be compared to a mortmain; where the ownership of land or real estate cannot be transferred or sold. Burke claims that the French government wants to build on the power of the bourgeoisie. It basically allowed the bourgeoisie to buy into aristocracy, which is completely against this idea of lineage and how it shouldn't be broken. Burke also reveals the truth about the aristocrats and how they get affection from those from the middle and lower class, simply because they 'supposedly' do good for others. 

In order for the social order to stay stabilized and structured, tradition plays an important role in the equation as well. If the tradition of passing the throne or possessions down to the eldest was not kept throughout the centuries of civilization, then there would be no monarchy or the social order would be completely messed up. Burke is acting against democracy because he feels that if people are given free reign to choose their governors and governments, the social order will become unstable. He saw this as an example of how people started to think more individualistically rather than having the mind set that the whole comes before and the small branches (or in this case the person).

The ideas that are conveyed in Burke's book has become an extremely popular text when discussing French society during the French Revolution. As Burke described, the social order is like a tree where everyone within the society is interconnected. A balance has been established through tradition for many years, but when individualistic ideas begin to penetrate the social order, it is not in equilibrium. Tradition is the keystone in this situation and should not be removed or altered in any way to cause disruption. Tradition leads to rights passing on through lineage, which Burke believes, then all contributes to a society that is structured and has complete order. 

Comparing Pope's Essay on Man and Voltaire's Candide

Voltaire and Pope portray two very different perspectives on life and evil that is present in the world. On one hand, Voltaire’s Candide focuses on the bad side of situations and the overall outlook on life is pessimistic. On the other, Pope writes with optimism and decides to not focus on the bad situations that will occur in life but rather on the good that will eventually come about. Pope’s Essay on Man is also written from a very religious perspective and therefore includes the idea that God is behind our plans in life. However, Voltaire’s Candide goes against this completely and suggests that reason is not in the universe but is created by humans. It could also be seen that Candide was written as a direct response to Pope’s Essay on Man.

Voltaire uses extremes in his writing in order to support his argument that suggests there is always a different side to a story – especially a more sinister one. This idea could be seen as individualism because Voltaire is suggesting we are in control of our own lives, there is no mastermind in the universe guiding us through life. In Candide, it is obvious that Voltaire is writing a secular novel that criticizes the religious order and world view, hence going against what Pope wrote in The Essay on Man. A good example is the one of ‘cultivating the garden’. A garden will only flourish if one puts in effort to cultivate it: an active role is taken to look after this garden. Similarly to human beings; we will only go so far without the drive that will encourage us to make the most out of the life we are living. It is as if he is suggesting that humans need to solely rely on themselves and not wonder whether there is a force in the universe that has an impact on one’s life.

The Essay on Man was written at a time where religion was a very important component in people’s lives. Therefore, it was seen as a guide of how to lead a life of happiness. Pope writes that man has a specific position in the social order and it shouldn’t be questioned as there is an ‘omniscient’ being somewhere out there who has already planned for our lives to be a particular way. Therefore suggesting that we should adapt the outlook that everything happens for a reason – God has laid a path for us to follow already. It is a very passive view on life as it could be seen that humans won’t need to try for anything because our path laid out by God cannot be altered. They could simply just sit there and live their lives as it has been set out for them. Pope also points out that all things evil will eventually lead to something good. If there was no evil, then how can good come about? It is simply a part of life that just has to be taken as the way it is. Also, evil is something that human beings perceive it as being bad. There is a limit to what us humans can know and therefore this idea of evil could simply be a fraction of the whole truth. As humans are prone to seeing imperfection, we simply dwell on the problems too much and forget about the goodness that can arise from this problem.

These two examples show us the two total opposite perspectives that some people may have had during the Enlightenment. There’s the secular view portrayed through Candide where Voltaire believes that human beings should take control of their own lives and make it the best of their ability, and the religious view in The Essay on Man where humans should take a more relaxed approach to evil as their life has been set up by God who’s reasoning is beyond a human being’s knowledge.