|
 Philosopher
of the Month
December
2000 - Thomas
Paine
Robin
Harwood
The
great and glorious Thomas Paine was a political theorist who tried
to put his theories into action. His aim was to free human beings
from oppressive government, oppressive religions, and oppressive
poverty. His method was to appeal to reason, so that all people
could recognise truth and justice. His achievements were spectacular.
Paine invented America, took part in the French Revolution, and
inspired revolutionary movements in Britain. The American Revolution
was a success, the French revolution was a disaster, and the British
Revolution never happened. Even so, Paine's ideas of democracy and
social welfare have been at least partly realized not only in these
countries, but in many other countries as well.
He
was born in England, but his life there was difficult, and on Benjamin
Franklin's advice, he emigrated to the New World. Paine arrived
in Philadelphia in 1774, and took a job as editor for the Pennsylvania
Magazine. One of his first essays was a call for the abolition
of slavery. Inspired by the first moves of the American Revolution,
he wrote the pamphlet Common Sense (1776), in which he argued
that independence was both morally justified and the only practical
option for the American Colonies. The book was massively influential,
and converted many waverers, including Thomas Jefferson and George
Washington, to the idea of the United States of America (Paine coined
the name) as an independent nation.
After
the War of Independence was over, he went to France, and then to
England, where he wrote The Rights of Man. Paine's message
was clear and powerful.
All
individual human beings, he argued, are created with equal rights.
However, human beings do not live as isolated individuals, but as
members of society. In society we flourish fully, both because we
can enjoy the company of other people, and from being able to gain
help and support from each other. Nonetheless, human beings are
not perfect and so sometimes infringe each other's rights. As individuals
we may not have the power to exercise some of our rights, such as
the right to protect ourselves. Thus, we create the state to protect
those rights, and the individual's natural right is transformed
into a civil right of protection. Also, as members of the state,
we gain additional rights, such as the right to vote, and the right
to run for office. The only legitimate form of state is a democratic
republic. Hereditary monarchy is morally illegitimate, since it
denies the current generation the right to choose their own leaders.
Of
course, Paine held that we also have duties. We have a duty to protect
the rights of our fellow citizens, and to maintain society, but
we also have to improve, enrich, and benefit society. This includes
the duty to eliminate poverty as much as we can. Paine proposed
a system of welfare to do just this. This welfare was not charity,
but a civil right.
The
popularity of the book frightened the British Government. Paine
was outlawed for treason, and he fled to France. The British revolutionary
movements were squashed.
The
French elected Paine to a seat in the National Convention. During
the Terror he was imprisoned and came close to being executed. After
his release, he took little active part in French politics, and
concentrated mostly on writing, particularly on religion and economics.
He produced The Age of Reason, arguing for Deism, and against
atheism and Christianity. He demonstrated that Christian theology
was unreasonable, and the doctrine of redemption was immoral. He
also showed that the Bible cannot be divine revelation, and condemned
it for its portrayal of God as cruel and vindictive.
In
Agrarian Justice, he returned to the question of rights and
social justice. Civilization, he argued, should not throw people
into a worse condition than they would be in if they were uncivilized,
and yet in Europe many people were poorer than American Indians.
The Earth had been given by God as common property to all men, but
the system of land ownership meant that only some could use it.
Paine argued that they should compensate the others by paying a
ground rent to society. Also, he argued that no-one could produce
riches without the support of society, so anyone who accumulates
property owes a part of it back to society. This would provide funds
for a social program that included education, pensions, unemployment
benefits, and maternity benefits.
When
Paine finally returned to America in 1802, his writings on religion
had made him an unpopular figure. Nonetheless, Paine did yet another
great service to his ungrateful country, in proposing that the U.S.A.
buy the Louisiana territory from Napoleon. Jefferson took Paine's
advice, and thus more than doubled the size of the United States.
Paine
carried on writing to the end, but his old age was miserable, and
he died in obscurity. Officialdom has preferred to ignore him, even
when carrying out his proposals, and his name is seldom on the lists
of great men, and yet many of his ideas are common currency now.
However, much of the world is still not completely free from political
oppression, organized religion, and poverty. We can still learn
from him.
Suggested
reading
Thomas Paine, A. J. Ayer, (Secker and Warburg)
The Thomas Paine Reader, ed. Michael Foot and Isaac Kramnick
(Penguin)
Tom Paine: a political life, John Keane, (Little, Brown and
Company)
A
new philosopher of the month will be featured from January 1st 2001
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