Burke suggests that we should view society as a partnership between the past, the present, and the future. I defend this idea by outlining how we can understand the interests of the past and future people and the obligations that they have towards each other. I argue that we have forward-looking obligations to leave the world a decent place and backward-looking obligations to respect the legacy of the past. The latter obligation requires an understanding of the role that traditions and meta-traditions should (and should not) play in tying together societies—especially national societies—over time.

中文翻译：

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一个时代的伙伴关系

伯克建议我们应该将社会视为过去、现在和未来之间的伙伴关系。我通过概述我们如何理解过去和未来人们的利益以及他们对彼此的义务来捍卫这一观点。我认为，我们有前瞻性的义务为世界留下一个体面的地方，也有回顾性的义务尊重过去的遗产。后一项义务要求了解传统和元传统在将社会——尤其是国家社会——随着时间的推移联系在一起时应该（也不应该）发挥的作用。