This is philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.

Philosophy bites is available at www

philosophy bites.com. When the fog of politics descends it can be difficult to see clearly.

Now regarded as one of the founders of modern conservatism, the 18th century

thinker Edmund Burke combined political experience with philosophical insight. Burke believed

in the need to balance two aspects of our humanity, our competitiveness and our capacity for

deference. For him, the French Revolution of 1789 enacted in the name of

liberty, equality and fraternity was not only a failure in its own terms, but a terrible warning of what happens when political institutions are violently uprooted.

Richard Burke, a historian at Queen Mary University of London is writing a book on Edmond

Burke. Richard Burke, welcome to Philosophy Bites. Thanks very much for having me.

So the topic we're going to talk about today is Edmund Burke. Can you explain something about who

Edmund Burke was?

Well, Edmund Burke was born in Dublin in

1730 to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother. He spent his youth between

Dublin and the Blackwater in Cork, went to a Quaker school, proceeded to Trinity College Dublin, where he took his undergraduate degree,

and then to London where he studied law.

His early career was spent as a man of letters in London, but he then moved into a career

parliamentary politics beginning in 1765, and that was the entered Parliament in 1765, the major issues of the day included the British government's

attempt to tax the American colonies, which proved highly controversial and led to the Declaration of Independence and the War between Britain and America in due course.

But also the East India Company's presence in South Asia was hotly debated, how exactly the company should administer its affairs there.

Equally, events in Ireland, where Burke of course came from, were proving difficult and controversial in this period.

So virtually everything that was to

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