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  3. Thomas Paine and the Idea of Human Rights
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2015
Print publication year:
2015
Online ISBN:
9781316227084
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316227084
Subjects:
Political Theory, History, Politics and International Relations, History of Ideas and Intellectual History
Information

Book description

Thomas Paine is a legendary Anglo-American political icon: a passionate, plain-speaking, relentlessly controversial, revolutionary campaigner, whose writings captured the zeitgeist of the two most significant political events of the eighteenth century, the American and French Revolutions. Though widely acknowledged by historians as one of the most important and influential pamphleteers, rhetoricians, polemicists and political actors of his age, the philosophical content of his writing has nevertheless been almost entirely ignored. This book takes Paine's political philosophy seriously. It explores his views concerning a number of perennial issues in modern political thought including the grounds for, and limits to, political obligation; the nature of representative democracy; the justification for private property ownership; international relations; and the relationship between secular liberalism and religion. It shows that Paine offers a historically and philosophically distinct account of liberalism and a theory of human rights that is a progenitor of our own.

Reviews

‘A superb reconstruction of Paine's thought. Dr Lamb draws on a wide range of sources, including pamphlets and correspondence, to show the coherence of Paine's beliefs. Paine's profound commitment to the moral equality of free individuals inspired his liberal theory of human rights. Lamb's book combines meticulous historical research with rigorous analytic arguments.’

Mark Bevir - University of California, Berkeley

'In his outstanding study of Paine’s reflections on moral, political, economic, international, and religious matters, Robert Lamb sets out to demonstrate both the continued relevance and the philosophical coherence of this underrated eighteenth-century thinker.'

Clement Fatovic Source: The Review of Politics

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Contents

Contents
References

Bibliography

Works by Paine

Paine, T., ‘An Occasional Letter on the Female Sex’, CW II, 1775.
Paine, T., ‘The Magazine in America’, CW II, 1775.
Paine, T., ‘Thoughts on Defensive War’, CW II, 1775.
Paine, T., ‘Common Sense’, CW I, 1776.
Paine, T., ‘The American Crisis V’, CW I, 1778.
Paine, T., ‘The American Crisis VII’, CW I, 1778.
Paine, T., ‘To the Public on Mr. Deane’s Affair’, CW II, 1778.
Paine, T., ‘To the Public on Robert Morris’s Address’, CW II, 1779.
Paine, T., ‘Dissertations on Government; The Affairs of the Bank; and Paper Money’, CW II, 1786.
Paine, T., ‘Letter to Jefferson’, CW II, 1789.
Paine, T. ‘Rights of Man’, CW I, 1791.
Paine, T., ‘To the Abbé Sieyès’, CW II, 1791.
Paine, T., ‘Rights of Man, Part the Second’, CW I, 1792.
Paine, T., ‘Letter Addressed to the Addressers’, CW II, 1792.
Paine, T., ‘To Mr. Secretary Dundas’, CW II, 1792.
Paine, T., ‘Address to the People of France’, CW II, 1792.
Paine, T., ‘Reasons for Preserving the Life of Louis Capet’, CW II, 1793.
Paine, T., ‘The Age of Reason’, CW I, 1794.
Paine, T., ‘Dissertation on First Principles of Government’, CW II, 1795.
Paine, T., ‘The Age of Reason, Part Second’, CW I, 1795.
Paine, T., ‘Agrarian Justice’, CW I, 1796.
Paine, T., ‘The Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance’, CW II, 1796.
Paine, T., ‘Prosecution of the Age of Reason’, CW II, 1797.
Paine, T., ‘Worship and Church Bells’, CW II, 1797.
Paine, T., ‘To the Council of Five Hundred’, CW II, 1798.
Paine, T., ‘The Existence of God’, CW II, 1801.
Paine, T., ‘Biblical Blasphemy’, CW II, 1804.
Paine, T., ‘To Mr. Moore, of New York, Commonly Called Bishop Moore’, CW II, 1804.
Paine, T., ‘To the People of England on the Invasion of England’, CW II, 1804.
Paine, T., ‘Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion, and the Superiority of the Former over the Latter’, CW II, 1804.
Paine, T., ‘Examination of the Prophecies’, CW II, 1807.
Paine, T., ‘My Private Thoughts on a Future State’, CW II, 1807.
Paine, T., ‘Predestination: Remarks on Romans, IX, 18–21’, CW II, 1809.
Paine, T., ‘The Will of Thomas Paine’, CW II, 1809.

Other works

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Feinberg, J., The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law, Volume I: Harm to Others, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
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Fruchtman, J. Jr., Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom, New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1984.
Fruchtman, J. Jr., Thomas Paine and the Religion of Nature, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
Fruchtman, J. Jr., The Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
Gadamer, H.-G., Truth and Method, London: Continuum, 1989.
Grotius, H., The Rights of War and Peace (ed.) Tuck, R., Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005.
Halldenius, L., ‘The Primacy of Right: On the Triad of Liberty, Equality, and Virtue in Wollstonecraft’s Political Thought’, British Journal for the History of Philosophy 15 (2007), 75–99.
Hampton, J., Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Harris, I., ‘Paine and Burke: God, Nature and Politics’ in Bentley, M. (ed.), Public and Private Doctrine: Essays in British History Presented to Maurice Cowling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 34–62.
Hart, H.L.A., ‘Are There Any Natural Rights?’, Philosophical Review 64 (1955), 175–191.
Hawke, D., Paine, New York: Harper and Row, 1974.
Heater, D., World Citizenship and Government: Cosmopolitan Ideas in the History of Western Thought, New York: St Martin’s, 1996.
Held, D., ‘Principles of Cosmopolitan Order’ in Brock, G. and Brighouse, H. (eds.), The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, 10–27.
Himmelfarb, G., The Idea of Poverty: England in the Early Industrial Age, London: Faber and Faber, 1984.
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Hont, I., ‘The Language of Sociability and Commerce: Samuel Pufendorf and the Theoretical Foundations of the “Four-Stages Theory”’ in Pagden, A. (ed.), The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, 253–276.
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Kant, I., ‘Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch’ in Reiss, H.S. (ed.), Kant: Political Writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 93–130.
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