thomas paine wrote the pamphlet common sense in 1776.
thomas paine wrote the pamphlet common sense in 1776.
who wrote the pamphlet common sense in 1776?
thomas paine
this began with descartes' criticism of it, and what came to be known as the dispute between "rationalism" and "empiricism". in the opening line of one of his most famous books, "discourse on method", descartes established the most common modern meaning, and its controversies, when he stated that everyone has a similar and sufficient amount of common sense (), but it is rarely used well. therefore, a skeptical logical method described by descartes needs to be followed and common sense should not be overly relied upon. in the ensuing 18th century enlightenment, common sense came to be seen more positively as the basis for modern thinking. it was contrasted to metaphysics, which was, like cartesianism, associated with the . thomas paine's polemical pamphlet "common sense" (1776) has been described as the most influential political pamphlet of the 18th century, affecting both the american and french revolutions. today, the concept of common sense, and how it should best be used, remains linked to many of the most perennial topics in epistemology and ethics, with special focus often directed at the philosophy of the modern social sciences.
common sense
later scholars have assessed "common sense's" influence in several ways. some, like a. owen aldridge, emphasize that "common sense" could hardly be said to embody a particular ideology, and that "even paine himself may not have been cognizant of the ultimate source of many of his concepts", making the point that much of the pamphlet's value came as a result of the context in which it was published. eric foner wrote that the pamphlet touched a radical populace at the height of their radicalism, which culminated in pennsylvania with a new constitution aligned along paine's principles. many have noted that paine's skills were chiefly in persuasion and propaganda, and that no matter the content of his ideas, the fervor of his conviction and the various tools he employed on his readers (e.g. asserting his christianity when he in fact was a deist), that common sense was bound for success. still others emphasized the uniqueness of paine's vision, with craig nelson calling him a "pragmatic utopian", who deemphasized economic arguments in favor of moralistic ones, thus giving credence to the "common sense"-as-propaganda argument.
common sense (pamphlet)