Common Sense
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine seems determined that the premises used in modern political philosophy are ‘common sense’ even to the layperson, although many other scholars would beg to defer. These premises generally concern the nature of man, which in the opinion of Auguste Comte, the father of the term ‘sociology’, should be absolute, such that it becomes possible for humanities to be studied as a science, and subsequently, lavoir pour prevoir et prevoir pour pouvoir, ‘from science comes prevision; from prevision comes action’.
Whether the stance adopted by Paine is the most appropriate for the study of political philosophy is open to debate, but the prowess with which Common Sense was written is indeed remarkable. It offers a break from the acrid observations of Krugman and the deeply controversial tone of Friedman; the reader is led to explore this serious discipline by a poet, who carefully selects his words as if he is composing a song, while maintaining the academic precision of a scientist. No more jokes about ‘anything calling itself a science is not a science’: whether science is to be defined by its empirical methods and epistemology, or simply the use of precise, economical language, political science should be justifiably called a ‘science’.
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine seems determined that the premises used in modern political philosophy are ‘common sense’ even to the layperson, although many other scholars would beg to defer. These premises generally concern the nature of man, which in the opinion of Auguste Comte, the father of the term ‘sociology’, should be absolute, such that it becomes possible for humanities to be studied as a science, and subsequently, lavoir pour prevoir et prevoir pour pouvoir, ‘from science comes prevision; from prevision comes action’.
Whether the stance adopted by Paine is the most appropriate for the study of political philosophy is open to debate, but the prowess with which Common Sense was written is indeed remarkable. It offers a break from the acrid observations of Krugman and the deeply controversial tone of Friedman; the reader is led to explore this serious discipline by a poet, who carefully selects his words as if he is composing a song, while maintaining the academic precision of a scientist. No more jokes about ‘anything calling itself a science is not a science’: whether science is to be defined by its empirical methods and epistemology, or simply the use of precise, economical language, political science should be justifiably called a ‘science’.
This particular field of study, however, is far from honest and upright as many others of its brothers and sisters claim to be. Government is a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world’.
Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness. The former promotes happiness positively by uniting our affections (for society emerges because ‘the strength of man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude’ – a rather rosy proposition, but sound in its own right), and the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is a necessary evil (just because it is born out of evil?).
Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness. The former promotes happiness positively by uniting our affections (for society emerges because ‘the strength of man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude’ – a rather rosy proposition, but sound in its own right), and the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is a necessary evil (just because it is born out of evil?).
We furnish the means by which we suffer, for government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence (a reference to the Biblical story).
The conclusion, therefore, is that security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.
