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How did Edmund Burke criticize the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen?

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Painting by Rembrandt showing Aristotle in rich dark clothing with a gold chain, resting his hand thoughtfully on a marble bust of Homer, illuminated against a dark background. — natural law *Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer*, oil on canvas by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1653; in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Edmund Burke, a proponent of natural law, famously criticized the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). While Burke believed in a transcendent moral order, he rejected the notion that the "rights of man" could be derived from abstract, metaphysical theories.123

Burke condemned the Declaration for proclaiming what he termed a "monstrous fiction" of human equality. He argued that such abstract concepts were dangerous because they ignored the historical process, tradition, and the "latent wisdom" accumulated over generations. By attempting to rebuild society based on speculative schemes rather than inherited values, he believed the revolutionaries were destroying the stable fabric of society and inviting social upheaval and dictatorship.2341

Ultimately, Burke viewed the Declaration as a rejection of the "ordered liberty" found in established constitutional frameworks, fearing that its focus on abstract rights would inspire "false ideas and vain expectations" rather than fostering the practical, evolutionary improvements necessary for a flourishing community.142