TY - JOUR
T1 - Edmund Burke's Ideas on Historical Change
AU - Sato, Sora
N1 - Funding Information:
This article was largely drawn from parts of the present author’s PhD dissertation submitted to the University of Edinburgh in October 2013 (the PhD research project supported by a scholarship from the Japan Student Services Organization). I would like to thank Thomas Ahnert, Harry Dickinson, Richard Bourke, Gordon Pentland and the anonymous referees of this journal for their helpful comments, advice and proofreading of an earlier version of this article. I am also grateful to Chris Perkins, Teri Cullen and Richard L Stevenson for their proofreading of drafts of this article.
PY - 2014/7
Y1 - 2014/7
N2 - Burke's view of history is an aspect of his thought that has been largely neglected by scholars, despite the wide recognition of its importance. In Burke's view, history, led by providence and by a human nature designed by God, is necessarily progressive. It is, nevertheless, human beings who are largely responsible for building their nations. A variety of civilisations could be generated if people governed a nation in harmony with its peculiar manners and circumstances. Nations can, however, be unstable, because their fortunes fluctuate. Although Burke was very familiar with-and influenced by-several different traditions of historiography, his ideas on history should also be seen as the product of his own reflections.
AB - Burke's view of history is an aspect of his thought that has been largely neglected by scholars, despite the wide recognition of its importance. In Burke's view, history, led by providence and by a human nature designed by God, is necessarily progressive. It is, nevertheless, human beings who are largely responsible for building their nations. A variety of civilisations could be generated if people governed a nation in harmony with its peculiar manners and circumstances. Nations can, however, be unstable, because their fortunes fluctuate. Although Burke was very familiar with-and influenced by-several different traditions of historiography, his ideas on history should also be seen as the product of his own reflections.
KW - Burke
KW - civilisations
KW - diversity
KW - history of historiography
KW - progress
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U2 - 10.1080/01916599.2013.867651
DO - 10.1080/01916599.2013.867651
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84899081765
SN - 0191-6599
VL - 40
SP - 675
EP - 692
JO - History of European Ideas
JF - History of European Ideas
IS - 5
ER -