Burke¡¦s Reflections on the Revolution in France opposes the principles of rights of man that ferment the French Revolution. Burke values the doctrines of tradition and wants to maintain the status quo, while the radical writers petition for political and social reform. The confrontation between Burke and other radical writers embodies the conflicting viewpoints of the eighteenth century. One is the idea of natural law of which Burke is the eloquent spokesman. The other is the theory of natural rights that is established to refute conservative values of the divine natural laws, in terms of the reverence of tradition, religion, order and property. The theory of natural rights is to reply to the theory of natural hierarchy and an answer to the contractual submission to absolute authority. In this thesis, I wamt to follow the dispute between Edmund Burke and the advocates of the rights of man who see in Burke the perfect formulation of the doctrines as inequality, injustice and persecution.
This thesis falls into four parts. In Chapter One of this thesis, I attempt to portray the historical and social background of the eighteenth century British society from which the dispute between the conservatives and the radicals emerged and into which they interconnected with the historical and social context. In Chapter Two, I argue against Burke¡¦s ideas of natural law in the Reflections on the Revolution in France and regard Burke¡¦s insistence of preserving the traditional doctrines as the limitation of human progress and innovation by following the disputes of the radical writers. In Chapter Three, I discuss how the authority uses political imposture to make people obedient and servile in William Godwin¡¦s Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and attempt to explore how Caleb Williams has tried to unfetter the minds of people who had been deeply manipulated by despotic authority. In Chapter Four I attempt to explore Rousseau¡¦s ideas of natural state and natural man embody in Robert Bage¡¦s Hermsprong. I end my thesis with a conclusion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0922100-142320 |
| Date | 22 September 2000 |
| Creators | Chen, Reui-jing |
| Contributors | None, None, None |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0922100-142320 |
| Rights | not_available, Copyright information available at source archive |
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