Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke

埃德蒙·柏克

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Politics and Military Politics Political PhilosophyBritish PoliticsWhig PoliticsThinkerConservatismClassical LiberalismPolitical ThoughtFreedomLecture CollectionEnglish Original

Summary

Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke is an English anthology that presents the intellectual profile of the eighteenth-century British statesman, orator, and political thinker Edmund Burke (1729–1797) through excerpted texts. Burke was born in Dublin, graduated from Trinity College Dublin, and later entered the Middle Temple in London. Around 1753 he turned to writing for a living and founded and edited the Annual Register. In 1774 he was elected MP for Bristol and long spoke in the House of Commons for the Whig Party. He died in 1797 at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. Later generations have regarded him as one of the intellectual founders of Anglo-American conservatism. The book consists of an introductory essay and a large number of short excerpted chapters. Rather than arranging the selections chronologically, it organizes them thematically. The first half leans toward taste and aesthetics, touching on the sublime and the beautiful, obscurity, language and rhetoric, the unity of the imagination, and artistic judgment, and may be read alongside Burke's early A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. The second half turns to politics, covering the nature and functions of the House of Commons, the distinction between party and faction, public opinion and representation, royal influence and parliamentary privilege, principles of taxation, colonial and American affairs, Ireland and Magna Carta, economic reform, the East India Company and the impeachment of Hastings, and the French Revolution and the British constitutional tradition. The excerpt format cuts Burke's long speeches into self-contained passages, allowing readers to grasp quickly his famous periodic rhetoric and argumentative rhythm, but at the cost of the context of the complete speeches. The book is better suited as an entry point to Burke's thought or as a collection for reading aloud and quotation than as an authoritative edition for studying particular speeches; deeper study still requires the full texts of Reflections on the Revolution in France, On Conciliation with America, and A Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.

Editor's review

读伯克，最容易被他的句子击中。他谈自由时说自由必须与秩序、德性相连，谈改革时说“有保留的改革、有改革的保留”，谈社会时说它是生者、死者与未出生者之间的契约——这些话至今仍被反复引用。本书的价值，正在于把这些散落在长篇演说与政论中的锋利片段集中起来，让读者在一册之内感受伯克作为演说家的节奏感与作为思想家的分寸感。 选本的编排也颇具匠心：从趣味、崇高与美的美学随笔，过渡到议会、政党、税收、殖民地、爱尔兰、印度与法国大革命的政治论述，恰好呈现伯克思想的整体轮廓——审美判断与政治判断在他那里本是同一件事，都依赖经验、传统与审慎。 需要提醒的是，这是一部摘编选集，不是全集，也不是某一篇演说的完整译本；片段脱离语境后，个别论断可能显得突兀甚至矛盾。因此在阅读时，最好把它当作“伯克思想地图”来用：先在选本中辨认主题与语气，再循着线索去读完整原作。对于想认真理解保守主义源头的读者，这本选集的性价比与可读性都相当高。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读导论性文章把握伯克生平与时代，再按“美学—议会—殖民地—法国革命”的主题顺序推进。
  2. 遇到精彩片段时顺手记下出处与主题，再回到《对法国大革命的反思》等完整文本中补足上下文。
  3. 书中大量长句与排比适合朗读，出声读几段更能体会18世纪议会演说的修辞力量。
  4. 可对照中文译本阅读，如《对法国大革命的反思》《论与美洲和解》等，帮助理解术语与历史背景。

FAQ

这本书有正式的中文译本吗？ 目前未见流行的完整中文译本。中文世界流传较多的是伯克的单部著作译本，如《对法国大革命的反思》《崇高与美》等；本书多以英文原版或公版重印本形式流通，阅读时需具备一定英文能力。
这本书是伯克的全集吗？ 不是。它是一部摘编性质的选集，由导论性文章与按主题编排的大量短章片段组成，并非某一篇演说的完整文本，也不覆盖伯克全部著作。
为什么市面上同名版本页数差别很大？ 本书早已进入公有领域，多家出版社以影印或重排方式再版，收录范围、字号与排版不同，页数从两百多页到七百多页不等。购买时以具体版本的出版社与ISBN为准。
读这本选集前需要什么背景知识？ 最好对18世纪英国议会政治、美洲殖民地争端、法国大革命有基本了解，并知道伯克与辉格党、黑斯廷斯弹劾的关系；否则片段式论述容易失去线索。
书中的“趣味”“崇高与美”部分与政治有何关系？ 这部分取自伯克早年的美学论著，讨论感受力、判断力与想象。伯克认为审美与政治判断共享经验与审慎的基础，因此美学片段是理解其政治思想的重要铺垫。

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About the author

埃德蒙·柏克 Author

Edmund Burke is an influential writer and political figure in the history of British political thought; details of his life are limited in publicly available sources, and the information held in our database does not provide confirmed facts such as his nationality or dates of birth and death. Our site currently carries one work by him, Reflections on the Revolution in France, which is commonly classified under world history. In this book Burke offers a systematic commentary on the French Revolution, questioning the abstract principles underlying radical change and stressing the value of tradition, order, and gradual reform. His prose is eloquent and closely argued, combining rhetorical force with theoretical depth. The work has been repeatedly cited in later discussions of political thought, has had a profound influence on the formation and development of conservative currents of thought, and remains an important text for understanding eighteenth-century political debate.