A crença de Thomas Paine no racionalismo e o ataque à monarquia inglesa

Abstract

Thomas Paine's political thought, despite being little studied when compared to other political thinkers of the eighteenth century, has awakened a new interest in several authors due to its important role in the development of revolutionary and reforming thought of that time. The aim of this dissertation is to discern whether Paine's criticism of the English monarchy was motivated by his belief in rationalism, which was confirmed after comparing Paine's ideas with the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and with the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau present in the Social Contract. What was investigated in this dissertation was Paine's political thought exposed in his works, especially in Common Sense and in Rights of Man, proceeding then to a definition of his concept of natural law and republicanism as the only legitimate regime, in order to make it possible to understand his fight for the separation of the American Colonies from England and his multifaceted critique of the English monarchy that began with the differentiation of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 from the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789, passing through his denial of the existence of the English constitution and ending with the analysis of his social assistance plan. The conclusions proposed in this dissertation are that the basic principles of Thomas Paine's thought are very similar to the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 and of The Social Contract of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and some of these principles, later, served has a basis for his accusation of the absence of a constitution in England, after his passage through the debating clubs of Paris and his contact with the Marquis de Lafayette and with the ideas of Rousseau.

Date of Award	29 Mar 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ivone Moreira (Supervisor)