Synopses & Reviews
This is the first collection of the writings of Edmund Burke that precede Reflections on the Revolution in France. A thinker whose range transcends formal boundaries, Burke has been highly prized by both conservatives and liberal socialists, and this new edition charts the development of his thought and its importance as a response to the events of his day. Burke's mind spanned theology, aesthetics, moral philosophy and history, as well as the political affairs of Ireland, England, America, India and France, and he united these concerns in his view of inequality. This edition provides the student with all the necessary information for an understanding of the complexities of Burke's thought. Each text is prefaced by a summary, and extensive notes and an introduction place these works in the context of Burke's thought as a whole.
Review
"Harris provides much useful historical background, for which readers of Burke will be grateful." Jerry Z. Muller, Times Literary Supplement"Burke's earlier political writings are more measured, more rationally argued, and often more interesting than his assaults on the revolutionaries in Paris, while his essays 'A Vindication of Natural Society' and 'A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful' raise intriguing, if unanswerable, questions about Burke's loathing for Rousseau and his understanding of the way in which aesthetics and politics connect. So Ian Harris's selection of pre-1790 Burke is particularly welcome....the extensive notes and bibliography will be useful to students, and the volume as a whole is very welcome." Ethics
Table of Contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; Chronological table; Introduction; A note on the texts; Biographica; Bibliography; âExtempore Commonplace on the Sermon of our Saviour on the Mount; A Vindication of Natural Society; A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful; âReligionâ; Tracts on the Popery Laws; Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents; Conciliation with America; âAlmas Ali Khanâ; âSpeech on the Army Estimatesâ; Index of Persons; Index of subjects and places.