Natural Rights and Equality

The book argues that all people are born with inherent natural rights, including liberty, equality, and property, and that government must be founded on these principles rather than on hereditary privilege or divine right.

Paine asserts that all men are born equal and have natural rights that cannot be surrendered to a monarch.

Paine asserts that all men are originally equal and that monarchy violates natural rights by exalting one man above others.

Grounds the critique in the Rights of Man, equality, and the rejection of inherited authority over others.

The chapter explicitly defines natural rights (liberty, equality, security, property, social protection, resistance to oppression) and asserts that the maintenance of these rights is the object of society.