The following examines the ideological perspectives of Sir Thomas More and Edmund Burke. More was considered a humanist, while Burke has been viewed as an important figure in the development of conservative political thought.
Sir Thomas More, also known as Saint Thomas More (because of sanctification by the Catholic Church) is probably best known for his confrontation with King Henry VIII, for which he lost his life. He was a statesman as well as a political and social philosopher. His most famous work is his Utopia, a book in which he created his version of a perfect society and gave his name to such conceptions ever after as "utopias." The word is of Greek origin, a play on the Greek word eutopos, meaning good place. In the book, More describes a pagan and communist city-state in which the institutions and policies are governed entirely by reason. The order and dignity of the state in this book contrasted sharply with the reality of statecraft in Christian Europe at the time, a region divided by self-interest and greed for power and riches. In this book, More included discussions of a large number of topics covering the institutions of society, including penology, state-controlled education, religious pluralism, divorce, euthanasia, and women's rights. This book helped establish More as one of the foremost Humanists (Encyclopedia Britannica, 313-314).
The Humanism of the era is described by Maynard (1947) in terms of the different elements that went together to form it. Classical scholarship was a mark of the Humanist, with the revival of learning of the Renaissance period, which included as well a sense of mysticism in the imaginings of men of wide interests bent on bringing the Divine Spirit into every sphere of human thought. The Humanist was also penetrated by the sense of the beauty and the mystery of life. More saw the beauty in Paganism even as he extolled the virtues of Christianity. Humanism placed the h...