Essays · Question
How does Essays develop the theme of Natural Rights and Equality?
Answer
Essays by Thomas Paine develops Natural Rights and Equality across the chapters the companion marks for this theme.
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.
Evidence in the book
- Common Sense
Paine asserts that all men are born equal and have natural rights that cannot be surrendered to a monarch.
- Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession
Paine asserts that all men are originally equal and that monarchy violates natural rights by exalting one man above others.
- Royalty
Grounds the critique in the Rights of Man, equality, and the rejection of inherited authority over others.
- Declaration of Rights
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.
- Dissertation on First Principles of Government
Paine asserts that hereditary government violates natural rights, and that equality of rights is the only just foundation for voting and representation.
- Agrarian Justice
Argues that the earth was originally the common property of all, and that private appropriation creates a debt owed to those who are excluded from their natural inheritance.
- Author's Inscription
Paine argues for equality in natural property (earth, air, water) and the inherent right of suffrage, independent of tax payments.
- Agrarian Justice
Paine asserts that every person is born with a right to a share of the earth's natural property, and that civilization should not make anyone worse off than in the natural state.
