Scottish Philosophy and British Physics, 1750-1880: A Study in the Foundations of the Victorian Scientific Style (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 235 "restorative" reform, tradition, and an almost organic idea of the state are explained fairly, it is not easy to suppress the element of political expedience in Burke's thought. For example, in defending the prescriptive title to landed estates, Burke wrote in 1790: "But these are donations made in the 'ages of ignorance and superstition'. Be it so. It proves that these donations were made long ago; and this is prescription; and this gives right and title. It is possible that many estates about you were originally obtained by arms, that is, by violence, a thing almost as bad as superstition, and not much short of ignorance but it is old violence; and that which might be wrong in the beginning, is consecrated by time, and becomes lawful" (cited on p. 117). Needless to say, Burke would have rejected any application of this "principle" to award the French Revolution with similar legitimacy. On the other hand, O'Gorman praises Burke for turning away from the Enlightenment's typical philosophic concepts and concerns; for in doing so "Burke opened up the field of political science and began to penetrate its depths .... At least, he succeeded in conforming nature to man and exploded the enlightenment's attempt to force a mythical man to conform to a non-existent nature" (p. 116). He labels Burke "a philosopher of an unusual kind" whose "philosophical method" was "practical," "didactic and rhetorical." "Burke's political philosophy is the philosophy of the politician," and thus it is "futile to argue about Burke's consistency " since he was consistent and inconsistent: "He moved on" (pp. 142-143). O'Gorman admits that Burke's ideas and assumptions "amounted to little more than an unthinking acceptance and reiteration of some of the traditional themes of political and intellectual life which had become embedded in the European consciousness" (p. 144), yet he asserts that Burke "was an idiosyncratic figure in his time." And he is moved to conclude: "In spite of his conservatism, then, Burke cast aside several of the fetters which had for long restricted the development of political philosophy. He succeeded in breaking new ground and in opening up new problems for investigation. Edmund Burke not merely made a contribution to the development of political philosophy but, in a very real sense, succeeded in extending its horizons and in enlarging its province" (pp. 146-147). Thus Burke is apparently made out to be the liberator of modern political philosophy, the father of modern political science with its politics of the actual and the expedient, and, curiously, one who has furthered the course of political philosophy. Not only are these inflated praises not substantiated in the book itself, but O'Gorman's conceptual confusion about political philosophy, the nature of political theory and of philosophical method will leave philosophers and historians alike dissatisfied. The general reader of the work will find it essential to be familiar with the politics and personalities of the period. The portrait of Burke's political career and thought is drawn from numerous letters, speeches, and pamphlets; quotations are ample (with Burke this is easy), but analysis is modest (with Burke this is necessary). A two page annotated bibliography recognizes other interpretations of Burke, but O'Gorman gives insufficient attention in the book to discussion and refutation of these. The book is a fair examination of Burke the politician, but its several flaws cannot recommend it as a fully adequate interpretation of Edmund Burke, still less of his alleged political philosophy. JOHNP. BURKE University of Washington Scottish Philosophy and British Physics, 1750-1880: A Study in the Foundations of the Victorian Scientific Style. By Richard Olson. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975. Pp. viii + 350. $17.50) Recently it has become evident that Scottish philosophy is beginning to attract the scholarly attention it has long merited. When David Hume, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson and other 236 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Scottish worthies were remembered primarily as intellectual prophets of a powerful Liberal orthodoxy it was exceedingly difficult to obtain a balanced picture of these men and their world. Now, however, the abandonment of outdated ideological debates and the advancement of historical scholarship have generated a...