Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Western Philosophy
18th century philosophy
Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke
Full name
Edmund Burke
Born
January 12, 1729
Dublin, Ireland
Died
July 9, 1797 (aged 68)
Beaconsfield, England
School/
tradition
Old Whig, Liberal
conservatism
Main interests Social and political
philosophy
Influenced by
Aristotle, Cicero, Richard Hooker, Edward
Coke, Montesquieu, William Blackstone
Influenced
Robert Peel, Immanuel Kant, Lord Acton,
William Gladstone, Friedrich Hayek, Karl
Popper, Roger Scruton, Joseph de Maistre,
Hannah Arendt, William F. Buckley, Alexander
Brunk
Edmund Burke (12 January 1729[1] – 9 July
1797) was an Irish statesman, author, orator,
political theorist, and philosopher who, after
relocating to England, served for many years
in the House of Commons of the United King-
dom as a member of the Whig party. He is
mainly remembered for his opposition to the
French Revolution. It led to his becoming the
leading figure within the conservative faction
of the Whig party, which he dubbed the "Old
Whigs", in opposition to the pro-French-Re-
volution "New Whigs" led by Charles James
Fox. He is generally viewed as the philosoph-
ical founder of modern conservatism.[2]
Early life
Burke was born in Dublin to a prosperous so-
licitor father (Richard; d. 1761) who was a
member of the Protestant Church of Ireland.
It is unclear if this is the same Richard Burke
who converted from Catholicism.[3][4] His
mother Mary (c. 1702–1770), whose maiden
name was Nagle, belonged to the Roman
Catholic Church and came from an impover-
ished but genteel County Cork family. (The
name Burke is the Gaelic version of the Nor-
man name Burgh or de Burgh, who settled in
Ireland following the Norman invasion of Ire-
land by Henry II of England in 1172.[5])
Burke was raised in his father’s faith and re-
mained throughout his
life a practising
Anglican, unlike his sister Juliana who was
brought up as and remained a Roman Cathol-
ic. His political enemies would later re-
peatedly accuse him of harbouring secret
Catholic sympathies at