Edmund Burke and the Moral Imagination

Send us Fan Mail 💭 Can feeling and imagination preserve what reason alone cannot? In this episode, Jack Thomson explores the political vision of Edmund Burke and the enduring power of moral imagination. Through Reflections on the Revolution in France , Jack traces how Burke's suspicion of abstract reason shaped a distinctly conservative political imagination — and why that tension between feeling and reason still runs through debates about party and faction today. 🎧 In this episode: Burke’s Reflections and the politics of moral imagination The defence of tradition against abstract rationalism Society as a living inheritance rather than a constructed system The moral and emotional foundations of political order This is part of our Heritage Series, tracing the evolution of conservative and traditionalist thought — from Plato and Augustine of Hippo to Joseph de Maistre and beyond — exploring how ideas shape the foundations of Western civilisation. 📚 Hosted by the History of Ideas Reading Club (University of Buckingham) 🎙️ Produced by Beyond the Text: The Intellectual Historian’s Podcast 🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & all major platforms #BeyondTheText #HeritageSeries #EdmundBurke #PoliticalPhilosophy #IntellectualHistory Support the show