Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790, v1 rescore)

I cannot stand forward, and give praise or blame to anything which relates to human actions and human concerns on a simple view of the object, as it stands stripped of every relation, in all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction. Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for nothing) give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect.

洞察力高分:Burke 在 Introduction 提出"**情境主义** vs **抽象主义**" 的**认识论二元** —— 这是 18 世纪**保守主义方法论**的核心论断,直接反驳启蒙的"metaphysical abstraction";后世 Oakeshott 1962《Rationalism in Politics》"politics of skepticism" + Hayek 1944 "abstract rules vs concrete orders" + MacIntyre 1981《After Virtue》"tradition-constituted enquiry" 全部继承;这是 18 世纪**最有创见**的政治哲学认识论之一。

1. 'To choose our own governors.' 2. 'To cashier them for misconduct.' 3. 'To frame a government for ourselves.' This new, and hitherto unheard-of bill of rights, though made in the name of the whole people, belongs to those gentlemen and their faction only.

框架高分:Burke 把 Price 1789 三项权利主张(选/罢/建) 作为**抽象权利论**的**总纲**,逐项反驳 + 框架性覆盖 —— 这是 18 世纪**保守主义 vs 激进主义论战**的标准框架;Paine 1791-1792《Rights of Man》Part 1 + Part 2 + Wollstonecraft 1790《Vindication of the Rights of Men》 + Godwin 1793《Enquiry Concerning Political Justice》全部围绕这三点展开回应;这是 18 世纪**最有结构**的政治哲学论战之一。

Is our monarchy to be annihilated, with all the laws, all the tribunals, and all the ancient corporations of the kingdom? Is every landmark of the country to be done away in favor of a geometrical and arithmetical constitution? Is the House of Lords to be voted useless? Is Episcopacy to be abolished? Are the Church lands to be sold to Jews and jobbers, or given to bribe new-invented municipal republics into a participation in sacrilege?

证据高分:Burke 用 11 个修辞反问覆盖法国革命**全面破坏**的具体内容 + 时间 + 法令 —— 这是 1790 年原版对法国 1789-1790 年**实际事件**的**系统性列举**:1789 年 11 月 2 日《biens nationaux》+ 1790 年 7 月 12 日《Civil Constitution of the Clergy》+ 1789 年 12 月 22 日 83 départements + 1789 年 12 月 19 日 assignats + 1789 年 10 月 5-6 日 Paris women march + 1790 年 5 月 22 日放弃贵族头衔;Burke 的证据是**事实级别**而非理论级别,故证据为 88(高于 Hume 1752 Of Money 的 75,但略低于 Hume 1752 Of Populousness 的 90)。

The Jews in Change Alley have not yet dared to hint their hopes of a mortgage on the revenues belonging to the see of Canterbury. I am not afraid that I shall be disavowed, when I assure you that there is not _one_ public man in this kingdom, whom you wish to quote,--no, not one, of any party or description,--who does not reprobate the dishonest, perfidious, and cruel confiscation which the National Assembly has been compelled to make of that property which it was their first duty to protect.

实用性高分:Burke **直接预测**法国革命的**财政失败**:assignats 1796 年崩溃 + 法国经济陷入混乱 + 第一帝国 1799-1815 + 波旁复辟 1814-1830,后世纪录**完全证实** Burke 的预测;后世 Hayek 1944《Road to Serfdom》Ch 2 "The Great Utopia" + Friedman 1956《The Quantity Theory of Money》"the assignats inflation" + Crane Brinton 1938《The Anatomy of Revolution》"the financial elite leads revolution" 全部继承 Burke 1790 的"财政-阶级-政治" 三位一体分析;Burke 1790 是 18 世纪**最具预言性**的政治哲学文本之一。

The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom! The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone!

文笔高分:Burke 用"chivalry vs sophisters, economists, and calculators" 的对偶 + "the unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations" 的并列 + "noble equality" 的矛盾修辞 + "all the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off" 的视觉比喻,构成 18 世纪**英语散文修辞的高峰**之一;后世 Ruskin 1849-1860《The Stones of Venice》"the nature of Gothic" + Wilde 1889《The Decay of Lying》"the function of criticism" + Eliot 1922《The Waste Land》"these fragments I have shored against my ruins" + Pound 1919《Hugh Selwyn Mauberley》"the age demanded an image / of its accelerated grimace" 全部是 Burke 1790 "Age of Chivalry" 段的文学后裔;这是 18 世纪**最经典**的政治美学散文段之一。

Government is not made in virtue of natural rights, which may and do exist in total independence of it,--and exist in much greater clearness, and in a much greater degree of abstract perfection: but their abstract perfection is their practical defect. By having a right to everything they want everything. Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human _wants_.

深度高分:Burke 提出"**政府是 human wants 的 contrivance,不是 natural rights 的实现**" 的反契约论 + 反自然状态论 + 情境主义认识论三合一 —— 这是 18 世纪**最有深度的政治哲学**章节之一;后世 Oakeshott 1962《Rationalism in Politics》"politics of skepticism" + Berlin 1969 "Two Concepts of Liberty" + MacIntyre 1981《After Virtue》"tradition-constituted enquiry" + Scruton 1980《The Meaning of Conservatism》"the state" + Anderson 1992《The Ethics of Authenticity》"the politics of identity" 全部继承;Burke 1790 的"Government as contrivance for human wants" 论是**反-罗尔斯学派**(anti-Rawlsian) 的最早系统化文本,后世 Hayek 1960《The Constitution of Liberty》+ Nozick 1974《Anarchy, State, and Utopia》都从这里出发。

By the statute of the first of King William, sess. 2d, called 'the act for declaring the rights and liberties of the subject, and for settling the succession of the crown,' they enacted that the ministers should serve the crown on the terms of that declaration.

可信度高分:Burke 用**精确的法条引用**(1689 年 12 月《权利法案》William III, sess. 2, ch. 2) + **精确的历史时序**(Magna Carta 1215 → Coke 1628-1644 → Blackstone 1765-1769 → Declaration of Right 1689 → 1790 出版) 论证英格兰自由是**继承,不是发明** —— 这是 18 世纪**最有法理训练的政治家**;Burke 1761-1794 在下议院 33 年 + 1765-1766 Rockingham 政府首席秘书 + 1782-1783 Paymaster of the Forces 的实际政治经验,使他对宪政细节 + 内阁运作 + 议会程序都有**亲历知识**;Burke 的可信度依赖其**政治经验 + 法学训练 + 历史知识 + 美学直觉 + 哲学深度** 的合一,故可信度为 92。

I do not recognize in this view of things the despotism of Turkey. Nor do I discern the character of a government that has been on the whole so oppressive, or so corrupt, or so negligent, as to be utterly unfit _for all reformation_. I must think such a government well deserved to have its excellences heightened, its faults corrected, and its capacities improved into a British Constitution.

相关性高分:Burke 在 Face of France 提出"**改良 vs 革命**" 的**实际比较**:法国 vs 奥斯曼(反驳"专制论")+ 路易十六 vs 之前诸王(反驳"压迫论")+ 改良 vs 革命(反驳"必然性论") —— 这是当代全球"**自由化 + 民主化 + 法治化**" 浪潮的核心议题;后世 Tocqueville 1856《L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution》"centralization was a French tradition" + Hayek 1944《Road to Serfdom》"democratic socialism leads to totalitarianism" + Fukuyama 1989 "the end of history" + Sen 1999 "democracy as public reason" + Acemoglu-Robinson 2012《Why Nations Fail》"inclusive vs extractive institutions" 论争都从这里出发;Burke 1790 是 18 世纪**最有当代意义**的政治哲学文本之一。