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Edmund burke was an Anglo-Irish journalist, Statesmen ,parliamentary orator, and philosopher who spent most of his career in Great Britain

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Edmund Burke, often regarded as the father of modern conservatism, championed a philosophy rooted in tradition, gradual change, and respect for historical wisdom. He believed society should evolve organically, preserving stability and continuity rather than pursuing radical reforms based on abstract ideals. His critique of the French Revolution exemplified this stance, warning against upheavals that disregard the lessons of the past. Burke's conservatism emphasized the importance of institutions, inheritance, and the intergenerational bond between the living, the dead, and future generations.

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Burke stressed that mankind has a tendency to fail more than succeed. He agreed with Hobbes that humans are imperfect. He believed in one-nation conservatism.

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Edmund Burke's key ideals centred on preserving tradition and ensuring societal stability through cautious, gradual change. He viewed society as an intergenerational partnership, emphasising the continuity between the past, present, and future. Burke believed institutions, organisations and customs embodied the accumulated wisdom of history, and any reform should respect these legacies rather than discard them for abstract theories. He was adamant critic of radical change, warning against the unpredictable and often destructive consequences of revolutionary ideologies, as seen in his response to the French Revolution. Burke advocated for practical, experience-based solutions that balanced progress with the preservation of social order

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As a Whig MP, Edmund Burke was known as the champion of numerous radical causes during the mid to late eighteenth century. He was a firm supporter of the American Revolution after 1776, defended Irish tenants in their clashes with extortionate landlords, demanded the impeachment of the Governor General of Bengal (Warren Hastings) for alleged cruelty towards Hindustanis, and was a fervent advocate of Adam Smith's call for free trade. Yet despite this radical pedigree, Burke is widely considered the father of conservatism and one of the Enlightenment's most important critics. How did this arise?

The answer lies in Burke's impassioned opposition to the French Revolution, via his famous text Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). It was in this book that Burke defined various tenets of conservative thought, including human imperfection, empiricism, organicism, tradition, aristocracy and localism. In respect of human imperfection, Burke stressed mankind's fallibility and its tendency to fail more than succeed. He therefore denounced the idealistic society that the French Revolution represented, claiming it was based on a utopian - and thus unrealistic- view of human nature.

Burke argued that while change was necessary to conserve, change should proceed on the basis of fact and experience in other words, empiricism and tradition rather than theory and idealism. Burke duly criticised the French Revolution for discarding what was known in favour of an entirely new society based on 'philosophical abstractions'.

Burke claimed that both society and

government were more akin to a plant than a machine. He thus argued that both had a mysterious dynamism that was beyond reason and planning. In the political and social context, Burke therefore insisted that change must be cautious and organic, and denounced the French Revolution for disregarding history and tradition. Burke was scathing about the French

Revolution's stress on equality, asserting that within all 'organic' societies, a ruling class was inevitable and desirable. However, this class had a clear obligation to govern in the interests of all. For Burke, it was the French aristocracy's failure to do this that led to revolution. Burke condemned the new French Republic for its highly centralised structures, praising instead a society of 'little platoons': a multitude of small, diverse and largely autonomous communities, which would 'acknowledge, nurture and prune... the crooked timber of humanity'.

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Burke held the one nation view of Laisser faire economics and state, resulting in minimal state intervention and free market economics. Burke had a more liberal view to then other one nation conservatives however.