Mostly History

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes - Part 1

Thomas Hobbes' seminal masterpiece, Leviathan, a long treatise on social contract and legitimate government in a commonwealth, was published in London in 1651, as the great English republican experiment was beginning. He had just returned from nearly a decade living in exile in Europe, escaping from the long turmoil of the civil war between the English Parliament and the Crown. Leviathan was his answer to that catastrophic period of social churn, hoping that his ideas would serve as a guide for establishing and maintaining peaceful civic relationships between the people and its sovereign authority.
Hobbes was born in Malmsbury, Wiltshire in 1588, at the time of the Spanish Armada threat to England. His mother would say that fear of the invasion was the cause of his premature birth. He was educated at a private school in Westport, followed by periods of study at both Oxford and Cambridge universities. After he graduated he was employed by members of the aristocratic Cavendish family with whom he remained for decades. It was while living and travelling with this family that he became attached to the Royalist cause.
During the time of political agitation, leading into the English Civil War and culminating in the execution of Charles I, Hobbes developed his views on the nature of Sovereign Authority and social contracts. His first major work on the subject, De Cive, published in 1647, contained many of his core ideas, which he continued to develop and which he later presented in a more expanded form in the work that became known as Leviathan.
In the work, Hobbes takes issue with the teleological principles found in the political theories of Aristotle, who considered that, by and large, the actions of mankind tended towards a beneficial purpose. Hobbes, on the other hand, thought a man's actions stemmed rather from a natural desire to avoid harm or danger or death. According to Hobbes, a man in his natural state, is constantly at war, either defending himself, his family and his goods against predation by his stronger neighbours or in acting aggressively towards those weaker than himself.
In order to avoid this perpetual warring state of each man against another, men agree to make social contracts either with a powerful One, who is given the title of Sovereign or with a group of individuals acting together as a single sovereign body, to whom, in return for the giving up of certain individual liberties, they invest supreme authority over themselves, in the hope that the Sovereign Authority thus created will establish and maintain a stable and lasting peace free from fear of war or predation.
Hobbes considered his works to be the start of a new form of political science in an age where other original thinkers in their different fields (Galileo, Harvey, Descartes) were also developing new ideas to instruct and inspire succeeding generations of scientists and philosophers.
Hobbes died in 1679 at the age of 91.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft Pt 3

 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, shortly after publishing her response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. She was prompted to write Rights of Woman after reading a report delivered to the French Assembly by the Bishop of Autun – Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord – in which he described his recommendations for a policy of public education, which contained the suggestion that it was unnecessary to educate women to the same level as men, but that they should be educated in the paternal home, because “they have less need to learn to deal with the interests of others, than to accustom themselves to a calm and secluded life.” In her long essay, which she dedicated to Talleyrand, Wollstonecraft addressed him directly and expressed her hope, that by reading her response, he would undergo a change of heart and alter his opinion.
  Women, she argues, must be educated as rational beings on an equal footing with men, not as lesser creatures of feeling, subservient to and dependent for their happiness and fulfilment on the good offices of their fathers, brothers and husbands. She draws much of her opinion from the philosophical teachings of John Locke. The writings of the French philosopher Jean-Jaques Rousseau comes under her critical scrutiny, along with many other contemporary writers whose expressed opinions on the education and manners of girls and women she opposes with point-by-point analysis. She believed that men and women are endowed by the Supreme Being with equal mental, if not physical, faculties and for one half of humanity to degrade the other by virtue of their sex was a sinful impiety.
  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was composed and published in haste in 1792 in order to provided a quick response to Talleyrand and the rapidly developing situation in France shortly after the Revolution. She had intended in time to produce a more considered second volume but it did not appear.
  Wollstonecraft died in 1797 at the age of 38 shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Mary.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft Pt 2

 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, shortly after publishing her response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. She was prompted to write Rights of Woman after reading a report delivered to the French Assembly by the Bishop of Autun – Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord – in which he described his recommendations for a policy of public education, which contained the suggestion that it was unnecessary to educate women to the same level as men, but that they should be educated in the paternal home, because “they have less need to learn to deal with the interests of others, than to accustom themselves to a calm and secluded life.” In her long essay, which she dedicated to Talleyrand, Wollstonecraft addressed him directly and expressed her hope, that by reading her response, he would undergo a change of heart and alter his opinion.
  Women, she argues, must be educated as rational beings on an equal footing with men, not as lesser creatures of feeling, subservient to and dependent for their happiness and fulfilment on the good offices of their fathers, brothers and husbands. She draws much of her opinion from the philosophical teachings of John Locke. The writings of the French philosopher Jean-Jaques Rousseau comes under her critical scrutiny, along with many other contemporary writers whose expressed opinions on the education and manners of girls and women she opposes with point-by-point analysis. She believed that men and women are endowed by the Supreme Being with equal mental, if not physical, faculties and for one half of humanity to degrade the other by virtue of their sex was a sinful impiety.
  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was composed and published in haste in 1792 in order to provided a quick response to Talleyrand and the rapidly developing situation in France shortly after the Revolution. She had intended in time to produce a more considered second volume but it did not appear.
  Wollstonecraft died in 1797 at the age of 38 shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Mary.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft Pt 1

  Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792, shortly after publishing her response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. She was prompted to write Rights of Woman after reading a report delivered to the French Assembly by the Bishop of Autun – Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord – in which he described his recommendations for a policy of public education, which contained the suggestion that it was unnecessary to educate women to the same level as men, but that they should be educated in the paternal home, because “they have less need to learn to deal with the interests of others, than to accustom themselves to a calm and secluded life.” In her long essay, which she dedicated to Talleyrand, Wollstonecraft addressed him directly and expressed her hope, that by reading her response, he would undergo a change of heart and alter his opinion.
  Women, she argues, must be educated as rational beings on an equal footing with men, not as lesser creatures of feeling, subservient to and dependent for their happiness and fulfilment on the good offices of their fathers, brothers and husbands. She draws much of her opinion from the philosophical teachings of John Locke. The writings of the French philosopher Jean-Jaques Rousseau comes under her critical scrutiny, along with many other contemporary writers whose expressed opinions on the education and manners of girls and women she opposes with point-by-point analysis. She believed that men and women are endowed by the Supreme Being with equal mental, if not physical, faculties and for one half of humanity to degrade the other by virtue of their sex was a sinful impiety.
  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was composed and published in haste in 1792 in order to provided a quick response to Talleyrand and the rapidly developing situation in France shortly after the Revolution. She had intended in time to produce a more considered second volume but it did not appear.
  Wollstonecraft died in 1797 at the age of 38 shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Mary.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men by Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Men is her response to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, which was published in 1791. She doesn't hold back. Her letter is a candid broadside against Burke and his opinions. She accuses him of hypocrisy, dishonesty and grandstanding in order to boost a flagging reputation. She points out what she sees as a mass of contradictions in Burke's text and his lack of intellectual rigour. Her support for the efforts of the French National Assembly in furthering the objectives of the Revolution is largely in accord with Thomas Paine's.

Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke - Pt 3

The third part of Edmund Burke's  Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke - Pt 2

The second part of Edmund Burke's Reflection on the Revolution in France.

Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke - Pt 1

Edmund Burke published his Reflections on the Revolution in France in November 1790. It takes the form of a long letter addressed to a young acquaintance living in France. In it he discusses his responses to the actions of the revolutionary National Assembly during an early period of the Revolution, their dealings with the king, Louis XVI, their selling off of church lands and holdings, the disruption of ancient rights of property inheritance and their re-organisation of the several municipalities in the country in terms of administration and representation. He makes many comparisons between France and Briton. He was a strong supporter of Briton's evolved system of constitutional monarchy with a two-house legislature, a functioning tiered society with a strong property-owning nobility at the top and the labouring and menial classes at the bottom. This pamphlet has become one of the founding texts of modern Conservatism.

Rights of Man by Tom Paine - Pt 2

Paine published part 2 of Rights of Man in 1792. In it he continues his expressions of support for the revolutions of America and France, holding them up as positive examples to the world, and looks forward to a time when similar movements of representative government will be generated all over Europe and the self-interested corruption of Monarchies will be cast down; and with it there would be an end to all monarchical-engendered aggression between countries. Nations will exist in friendly association with one another, allowing trade to flourish. This pan-European amity would make possible a widespread disbandment of military forces. Large armies and navies would be no longer needed and would therefore be greatly reduced in numbers, and perhaps the remaining forces could even become a shared resource between certain trading partners. As a result the people of England would be relieved of a great part of their burden of taxation. The taxes that remained would be more equally and fairly levied on all citizens, including the rich property-owning classes. Earnings would be strictly regulated and capped so that no individual could become excessively rich from the public purse, and there would be established a country-wide welfare system to support the poor, the aged and the infirm. After publication, Rights of Man became widely distributed, read and shared. Paine was tried in absentia and found guilty of seditious libel against the Crown. He was by this time living in France and so was unavailable for hanging. He did not return to England.

Rights of Man by Tom Paine - Pt 1

Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809) published Rights of Man in 1791, in response to the Irish politician and historian, Edmund Burke, whose critical essay, Reflections of the French Revolution, published the previous year, offended Paine's own feelings of support for the people of France in their struggle (as he saw it) against the despotism and corruption of rule by hereditary aristocratic government. Rights of Man was tremendously well received in both Britain and France by early advocates of the French revolution. Within a short time, however, many of Burke's warnings and prophecies were to come true.