How Did Edmund Burke Influence Classical Conservatism

Edmund Burke was a British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker who played a significant role in all the major political issues of his time. Writing about a year after the French revolutionaries attacked Bastille, the "Reflections on the Revolution in France" by Burke was widely known for its attack on the principles that motivated one of the most remarkable events in western history. He became an important influence on classical conservatism since its creation in the year 1789. He was a firm believer of conservatism, even became an important influence on classical conservatism since its creation, and used this to support his claims in his critical analysis of the French Revolution. Burke argues against enlightenment and
rationality, firmly believing in his biggest argument which is in favor of tradition. He started his critical analysis by remarking that the old French monarchy and aristocracy indeed had had faults in their systems but he claimed that they had not been so bad as to carry out a revolution against them. This was, according to him, a terrible mistake for they started to become liberal about every aspect of the existing government. For one, they had stripped the "degraded king" of real power and replaced him with "a despotic democracy". Another is the placement of the people's representatives in the National Assembly, which only consisted of members of the lower clergy and country lawyers with no Senate to balance the incompetence, as Burke remarked in his essay. One of his arguments include "by adhering... on those principles to our forefathers, we are not guided by the superstitions of antiquarians," effectively showing that he was attacking the liberals of his time, which included the philosophers who promoted the observance of the concepts of enlightenment. He continues by exalting the tradition that was observed back then, saying that "through the same plan of conformity to nature in our artificial institutions we have derived several benefits from considering our liberties in light of our inheritance". His arguments are valuable and must be noted to avoid huge revolutions in the future, but only to some extent. Having strong institutions greatly help maintain stability especially when those in the government are able to prioritize the populace, thereby successfully decreasing corruption in the large scale. In addition to that, traditions and customs exist for good reason and variably provide benefits and platforms for improvement of well being in the society. However, while traditions and customs exist for their respective important roles in society, it should not be a reason for one to believe that they should never be changed. Everything is constantly changing and strict observance of tradition eventually leads to practices that limit the growth of society and prevent us from achieving more for the betterment of ourselves. Burke provides ideas and concepts that are correct, but only to some extent.