Summary Of The Paine's Rights Of Man By Edmund Burke

The identity of a society is verified through the rights which are given to the citizens. The rights of man have been at many different standards throughout time. Often being very one sided, and at times striving for a median between the two sides. In Edmund Burke's essay Reflections on the Revolution in France Burke states that a king is in one sense a servant but in everyday situations they are above every individual. All persons under him owe him a legal agreement to serve his hopes. This essay will demonstrate why Thomas Paine's essay The Rights of Man is more convincing than Edmund Burke's through examination of a heredity government, the nature of rights and the uselessness of the monarchy.

The second contrasting point is that Paine believed in the total reform of society and Burke believed that things were fine just the way they were. Paine thought that if people wanted something to change, they could get it done. He wrote in his book Rights of Man that “revolutions were necessary to destroy this "barbarous system" in order to create the conditions for peace, commerce, lower taxes, and the "enjoyment of abundance.” He was referring to the American and French revolutions to get rid of the monarchy hold on them. Burke believed that wisdom of the past generations should rule current generations. He believed that everything set up by the past should not be reckoned with. He thought that laws, religious commandments, scriptures, and general ways of living were perfect just the way they were. Paine attacked this theory once again in his book Rights of Man by stating, “Governing from dead generations is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.” Paine continuously attacked everything that Burke supported. These two men disliked each other very much. They continued to spread their theories though.

In the work of Thomas Paine, "Common Sense" Paine mentions throughout of the working for a positive government with the idea of equality. Thomas Paine writes different excerpt that give theories and idea with the goal of implementing those ideas into a government that may be just and fair. Paine reflects on the English constitution specifically the crown. Paine also provide an insight to having a higher power to run a government. Paine also criticizes the idea of monarchy and hereditary succession. Complications would ultimately arise through his ideas and theories due to the differences in religions.

During the Age of Enlightenment in the late eighteenth century, Mary Wollstonecraft presented a radical essay, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, that shed light on the largest, underrepresented groups of the time, women. The essay voiced the inequalities women at the time faced and called upon Wollstonecraft’s audience to invoke a revolution for the rights of women. Through her writing, she presented a compelling argument that slowly allowed women to question their “place” in society and demand change to the British social order. While these changes did not happen quickly, her work sparked the feminist movements through its unique message and called upon women to demand equality through the Match Girls Strike and Women’s Suffrage

She was a mother, a moral and political philosopher, a writer, and a feminist. Mary Wollstonecraft was the ideal image of what represented the push towards modern feminism. Some may even consider her as the founding mother of modern feminism itself. Much of Wollstonecraft’s literature is influenced by her own life experiences. In 1785, Wollstonecraft took on an employment opportunity as a governess. While spending most of her time there, she had a moment of epiphany where she realized that she was not suited for domestic work. Soon after, she returned to London and became a translator and wrote for a well-known publisher and discovered her love of writing. Eventually, years later she was then able to publish her most notable work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is still a very popular book which can be seen as a guide to becoming a better citizen and understanding feminism in a critical context. This essay will argue that Mary Wollstonecraft is still relevant to the feminist cause today as her views portrayed in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman are still relatable to many of the feminist issues that currently exist around the world. This essay will do so by comparing how her views in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman can still be used as guiding principles to tackle feminist matters.

Many philosophers and theorists have spoken on the value, or lack thereof, of revolution. In Second Treatise of Government, John Locke builds the concept of a “social contract,” which outlines responsibilities of the government and what can be done if the state fails to uphold its duties.  Edmund Burke views political rebellion in a different light. He writes in Reflections on the Revolution in France that upheaval does excessive harm to the state, and, by extension, the people. While both Locke and Burke agree that rebellion is useful to the growth of a state, they differ on a few main points. First, they disagree in terms of what circumstances warrant revolution. Second, they each believe it should take different forms and work to different extents. Finally, Locke and Burke believe revolution tends to have positive or negative effects, respectively. Their views on each of these points will be discussed in turn.

This research project addresses the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, "The Vindication of the Rights of Women". To investigate this, I will first summarize her work and someone else 's interpretation of it, then analyze the author, voice, message and significance, and finally analyze the two works to answer the question, "What are the current ideas about your philosopher? How have their ideas influenced us today?". My first souce will be the primary source of the Vindication, and my secondary source will be Matilde Martin Gonzalez 's interpretation of this work. The investigation does not address, however, the thoughts of people in Mary Wollstonecraft 's time about her work.

Mary Wollstonecraft, a founder of feminist ideology, is another philosopher that illustrates the radical school of thought. Wollstonecraft's central philosophical assertion is that the role of women in society is not, in fact, their natural god given state, but a result of their incompetent upbringing— specifically, their inadequate and inequitable education (Wollstonecraft Lecture). Thus, according to Mary Wollstonecraft, given that women's lower status is not natural, the way women are raised and educated must radically change. This is the key argument in her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Thus, we see her call for societal change consistently throughout the book.

Burke also argued against natural rights and explained a custom and practice that develops relation between the government and people. Paine believed in equality and criticised the monarch being chosen by the hereditary succession and by the choice of the people. He wanted the British Constitution to be written because he saw it as not right, and it was brought in during the Glorious Revolution in 1688.

In an excerpt from her 1792 treatise, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, novelist, philosopher, and women’s rights champion Mary Wollstonecraft argues for a united effort to incorporate women into society. She begins by discussing the corrupt and confining divisions in society. While there are a few ways for men to creep out of their predetermined ranks and futures, for women this is a nearly insurmountable task, she claims. Just legislation is aimed at promoting the public good, she explains, but women do not neatly fit into this equation. Many male philosophers believe that women should stay in the home and live lives of propriety, she relates.

Edmund Burke was a political theorist and statesman. During this time period a lot of changes were taking place all around the globe including the French Revolution. In 1790 Burke began writing his Reflections on the Revolution in France in the form of a letter addressed to “Intend to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris” to share his point on the issues that were going on. After completion of his writing it quickly became popular selling thirteen thousand copies in the first five weeks and later having gone through eleven editions within the first year. Today Reflections has become a very important piece that helped voice the people during that time and has said to be “the most eloquent statement of British conservatism favoring monarchy,

Burke a political philosopher who challenged the French Revolution as destructive and counter-productive believed Europe was already representing a flourishing society when the Revolution began. Burke argued that it was not enough to be free, life needed meaning and such could be found in tradition, folklore and myth. In Reflections on the Revolution in France (Burke, E 2004)i, Burke alludes to his position on education, claiming “there ought to be a system of manners in every nation which a well formed mind to be disposed to relish’ (Burke, E

Boundless limitations existed in society, which in turn caused inequality, a lack of freedom and inferiority to occur. Immanuel Kant (2016) explores and deconstructs the notion of enlightenment in ‘An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?” by claiming that people with power cause fear in others, which has created a society that has restrictions and rules to control and ‘guide’ the general public. On the other hand, Mary Wollstonecraft (2016) highlights the inferior status that has been imposed upon women by those with power, which she further emphasizes in ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’. Although, both authors have clearly demonstrated their perspectives on freedom, there is a dissimilar concept they both debate upon throughout their respective texts.

The atmosphere of the Romantic era, which was vibrating with ideas focusing around individual liberty, was an ideal opportunity for feminists to advance the thought of women being perceived as equals in society. Advocates for women’s rights attempted to further their goals by arguing that equality should be a logical extension of liberty. If individual liberty was considered a human right, then it should therefore also apply to women in order to be correct; to them it seemed undeniable that the term ‘individual’ included all individuals, regardless of race, gender, or religion. Concerning this issue, Mary Wollstonecraft further inquired if it was, “not inconsistent and unjust to subjugate women, even though you firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best calculated to promote their happiness? Who made man the exclusive judge, if women partake with him the gift of reason?”

In countering the politically conservative ideals sweeping the nation in the early 1790s reaction to the French Revolution, reform publishers like Johnson, and his coterie of writers, actively confronted writers like Edmund Burke and his proponents. Burke's criticism of radicalism in his Reflections on the Revolution in France is salient to the debates, warning of the spread of French-Jacobin ideals to British soil. He criticized heavily the reform works like those Joseph Johnson and his circle of writers published. Burke's attack (in part a reaction to the reformer Dr. Price, a leading advocate of social reform[3]) set off a storm of political controversy concerning the most fundamentally esteemed principles that many saw as the basis of English civilized life in the 1790s: Reason, Truth, Liberty, Virtue, Justice, and God. In order to persuade his readers, Burke attempts to justify the historical abuses that France's monarchy perpetrated toward its citizens. He constructs a history that constituted the same "leading principles on which the commonwealth and the laws are consecrated" in Britain, one that he felt all patriotic British citizens implicitly agreed with.[4] His aim was to sanitize the French aristocracy's complicity as political agents of an abused monarchy, and to