Thomas Paine and the idea of human rights : discussione sul lascito intellettuale di Thomas Paine

This paper aims to investigate some of the fundamental aspects of Thomas Paine's political thought, starting from an analysis conducted on Robert Lamb's book, published in 2015 and titled Thomas Paine and the Idea of Human Rights. We can consider Paine, as well as a direct witness, an absolute protagonist of the most important revolutionary events of the eighteenth century. Not only was he a theorist, but also an activist who fought concretely to defeat the hereditary monarchies and affirm human rights, and this is the reason why his works have become a reference point for everyone who intends studying the Enlightenment period. The English thinker firmly believed in the building of a political-institutional alternative that could have replaced the illegitimate and tyrannical system established by the monarchies and aristocracies all around the world.

The new order thought by Paine had to be founded upon a constitutional chart which would have guaranteed the respect of the fundamental political, civil and social rights of citizens. His whole intellectual contribution was directed to protect the principles of liberty and equality, which had to represent the basis upon which elaborate the political form that more than any other would have assured the guarantee of the individual rights: the democratic republic. [Publisher's text].