Thomas Paine, Rights of Man

• Mediasite (video plus slides)
• Powerpoint (pdf slides)
• Powerpoint (slide presentation)

See also Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

1. Thomas Paine’s view that government is a contract to provide security to its people resonates with Hobbes, while his conviction that people are born compassionate but made cruel and selfish by corrupt society echoes Rousseau. Which of these theorists, if either, most aligns with the arguments of Paine’s Rights of Man?
2. Analyze Paine’s rhetoric in Rights of Man. You might consider: does how he writes contribute to or detract from what he’s trying to say?
3. Consider Paine’s discussion of titles, rank and nobility with reference to Césaire’s The Tragedy of King Christophe.
4. Discuss similarities and/or differences between Kant’s arguments in “Conjectural Beginning of Human History” and Paine’s arguments in Rights of Man.
5. Do Paine and Wollstonecraft share the same conception of rights?