Thomas Paine · Politics
When Edmund Burke condemned the French Revolution, Paine answered with the great modern defense of natural rights, popular sovereignty, and the right of every generation to govern itself.
You learned that Paine answered Burke by insisting rights belong to living individuals, not to inherited tradition. Restate Paine’s claim that ‘the living, and not the dead’ hold political authority.
Leads to Edmund Burke.
Begin this lesson →epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.