Ex-hippie wrote:Don't forget there's a Burke as well (a character I think should die, like now).
I didn't realize that there was a character named Burke. He was probably in a string of episodes that I did not see. But are you putting the allusion in the same category as the Early Modern (social contract) philosophers?
I never thought that Edmund Burke was much of a philosopher and I don't mean that derisively. The only place where he really engages critically with other philosophers is in his works on aesthetics, particularly beauty and sublimity. Here he is in direct dialogue with Lyotard, Kant and perhaps Hume. Indeed, his view on sublimity is one of the big ones in aesthetics. (I'm with Kant here, though, because his view on sublimity is the least limited.)
Yet, Burke is hardly a contractarian like Rousseau, Hobbes or Locke (or even the Late Moderns / German Idealists like Kant and Fichte). You are probably talking about his
Reflections on the Revolution in France. (I really enjoyed that, it is one of the best pieces of political conservativism ever.) But that is hardly a work of philosophy, much less a social contract theory. As far as I can tell, it does not put forth a theory at all. (He obviously holds a sort of conservativism, but really just in the most basic sense of the term: 'radical change is bad, but gradual change is okay'. Just incrementalism and nothing theory-laden.) It is more a work of social/political commentary, i.e. 'the French Revolution is stupid'. True,
Reflections is probably still taught on the political theory side of some political science departments. (I first heard about it in an introductory undergraduate poly sci course.) But I doubt it is ever taught in philosophy departments. Even as political theory, it is not political theory like the contractarians (or even Isaiah Berlin, Rawls or Foucault). It is more political theory like Hannah Arendt's
Origins of Totalitarianism, or something -- heavily historical social/political commentary that does not put forth a theory.
Again, I don't know anything about the
Lost character, but I suspect that the allusion is unlike the social contract philosophers allusions. If it is a substantive allusions, which I take it we both doubt, I think it is much more likely that it has something to do with aesthetics. Or, perhaps, it could be something a little bit more straightforward along the lines of 'the French Revolution is stupid' ... After all, I would think that Burke is better known for his
Reflections.
EDIT: Or it could be what you call "weird coincidences" that really aren't supposed to contribute much. But even if that is right, it is not a weird coincidence in the sense that there are so many characters names after social contract theorists. It would be if his name were Hobbes or something. I guess Hume doesn't belong in the same category either, but at least he was a philosopher, and an Early Modern one, while Burke was more of a social commentator.
