The Rights of Man

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1791

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Part 2, Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary: “Of Society and Civilization”

Paine argues the social order is not a product of government. Mutual wants and affections bring men together into society. Paine cites the first two years of the American Revolutionary War as proof that the abolition of formal government does not lead to society’s collapse. He argues that government more often disrupts social harmony than promotes it. Paine believes that America is proof that small, inexpensive governments allow individuals and societies to flourish. In short, human beings do not require much government.

Part 2, Chapter 1 Analysis

In this brief chapter, Paine argues that “society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government” (107, emphasis added). He suggests that human beings are naturally inclined to sociability, that they form themselves into societies based on mutual interests, and that hereditary governments unsettle these harmonious relations: “[H]ow often is the natural propensity to society disturbed or destroyed by the operations of government!” (109). If Paine seems overly optimistic in his view of human nature, it is because prevailing attitudes among supporters of hereditary government in the 18th century held that most human beings—especially commoners—were by nature vicious, and therefore required restraint on the part of government to preserve social order. Paine here follows the arguments of the Enlightenment philosophers, such as Jean-Jacques Rosseau, by claiming that man is by nature good and that humans in their natural state are more prone to cooperation than competition.