REMARKS ON HUMAN NATURE AND POLITICAL COMMUNITY IN E. BURKE. (Uwagi o naturze ludzkiej i wspólnocie politycznej u Edmunda Burkea.

This article is an attempt to refute the accusation of hostility towards intellect and rationalism to Burke, which is also mentioned by MacIntyre. It is questionable that Burke was falsifying English history for his own benefits. It was ideological conviction connected with French Revolution judged as seditious and 'metaphysical', not conformism, that made him strive for split in his own party. Also in this context he warned of retreating to some founding state, of raising society from the beginning, of starting reforms with act of establishment's breakage. He was convinced that old-time social life, such as human cities and political communities, can't be forced in new political and legal constructions without a great waste and damage of prolonged evolution of human institutions and companionship. Burke's well known belief that to govern we need through knowledge of state's nature and spirit, which is complex and delicate, does not confirm his anti-intellectual attitude. Burke's view of power was probably a public service, in the interest of the nation. MacIntyre, who defends the values of tradition, owes more to Burke than he wants to admit. Nevertheless Burke in his attack on theoretical abstractions goes too far. There is a kind of reflexivity elimination form the practice. Practice without autocratic debates (as MacIntyre exposed) as well as axiological references, which are enabled by theory (as Leo Strauss exposed) would lead to lethal stagnation, but it was not really realized by Burke.