Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke

Author: BBC Radio 4 June 3, 2010 Duration: 42:06

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the eighteenth-century philosopher, politician and writer Edmund Burke.Born in Dublin, Burke began his career in London as a journalist and made his name with two works of philosophy before entering Parliament. There he quickly established a reputation as one of the most formidable orators of an age which also included Pitt the Younger.When unrest began in America in the 1760s, Burke was quick to defend the American colonists in their uprising. But it was his response to another revolution which ensured he would be remembered by posterity. In 1790 he published Reflections on the Revolution in France, a work of great literary verve which attacked the revolutionaries and predicted disaster for their project. The book prompted Thomas Paine to write his masterpiece Rights of Man, and Mary Wollstonecraft was among the others to take part in the ensuing pamphlet war. Burke's influence shaped our parliamentary democracy and attitude to Empire, and lingers today.With:Karen O'BrienProfessor of English at the University of WarwickRichard BourkeSenior Lecturer in History at Queen Mary, University of LondonJohn KeaneProfessor of Politics at the University of SydneyProducer: Thomas Morris.


Melvyn Bragg and a panel of academic experts gather each week to explore the vast landscape of human thought on In Our Time: Philosophy. This long-running BBC Radio 4 series, a cornerstone of the network's intellectual offerings, approaches profound ideas not as dusty relics but as living conversations that have shaped our world. Each episode focuses on a single philosopher, a pivotal movement, or a foundational concept, building from the basic principles to the deeper complexities. You'll hear informed discussion and spirited debate that clarifies without oversimplifying, making centuries of thought accessible and relevant. The scope is deliberately broad, tracing connections from ancient inquiries into ethics and existence to the modern puzzles of logic and language. Rather than offering quick answers, this podcast provides the context and clarity needed to genuinely engage with questions about knowledge, self, and society. It’s an invitation to sit in on a nuanced, thoughtful dialogue that assumes curiosity rather than prior expertise, reminding us that these enduring debates are, in every sense, still very much in our time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

In Our Time: Philosophy
Podcast Episodes
Cogito Ergo Sum [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:18
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of the most famous statements in philosophy: "Cogito ergo sum".In his Discourse on the Method, published in 1637, the French polymath Rene Descartes wrote a sentence which remains…
Free Will [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:20
In the 500th edition of the programme, Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the philosophical idea of free will.Free will - the extent to which we are free to choose our own actions - is one of the most absorbing philosop…
Maimonides [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:13
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work and influence of Maimonides.Widely regarded as the greatest Jewish philosopher of the medieval period, Maimonides was also a physician and rabbinical authority. Also known as…
Aristotle's Poetics [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:00
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Aristotle's Poetics. The Poetics is, as far as we know, the first ever work of literary theory. Written in the 4th century BC, it is the work of a scholar who was also a biologist, and…
Daoism [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:22
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daoism. An ancient Chinese tradition of philosophy and religious belief, Daoism first appeared more than two thousand years ago. For centuries it was the most popular religion in China…
Logic [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:14
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history of logic. Logic, the study of reasoning and argument, first became a serious area of study in the 4th century BC through the work of Aristotle. He created a formal logical…
William James's 'The Varieties of Religious Experience' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:18
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'The Varieties of Religious Experience' by William James. The American novelist Henry James famously made London his home and himself more English than the English. In contrast, his psycho…
William Hazlitt [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:55
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and works of William Hazlitt. Hazlitt is best known for his essays, which ranged in subject matter from Shakespeare, through his first meeting with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to a b…
Ibn Khaldun [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:15
Melvyn Bragg and guests Robert Hoyland, Robert Irwin and Hugh Kennedy discuss the life and ideas of the 14th-century Arab philosopher of history Ibn Khaldun.Ibn Khaldun was a North African statesman who retreated into th…
The Frankfurt School [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:03
Melvyn Bragg and guests Raymond Geuss, Esther Leslie and Jonathan Rée discuss the Frankfurt School.This group of influential left-wing German thinkers set out, in the wake of Germany's defeat in the First World War, to…