Common Sense By Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was an extraordinaire to the world of philosophy and political theory during the Age of Enlightenment era. This age is characterized by the public’s strong faith and their usage of logic and reason within religion, also known as Deism. Thus so, Paine utilizes the significance of religion to the public in a logical way in order to convey his argument in his pamphlet Common Sense. He advocates for independence from England and the removal of monarchical government, believing it to be a detriment to the ways of the upcoming Thirteen Colonies. Paine works to convince his public audience that a British monarchical government is morally and reasonably wrong from a Christian standpoint, thereby influencing the audience using topics that …show more content…
Directly citing scripture, Paine displays a link to Christianity, which the audience finds extremely important in their lives. Thus, his citation shows his audience the apparent importance of his argument from a religious standpoint. Paine reiterates that “no kings” exist in the chronology of scripture, and therefore “there were no wars” (lines 1-2). Paine uses inductive reasoning to come to this conclusion, as the lack of wars because of the lack of kings is not an immediate fact, but rather a notion that seems probable and assists to his argument. This inductive reasoning shows a usage of logos, or logic, within Paine’s argument and also directly applies to the Deist beliefs of reason and logic that existed during the era in which he wrote Common Sense. The appeal that Paine makes to logic and his audience’s beliefs also coexists with the reasonable usage of cause and effect evident in the structure of his writings. As there are no kings in chronological scripture, Paine concludes that the effect of such is that no wars existed; therefore, he calls his audience to consider the fact that they should fight to break from the existing British monarchy, or kingship, in order to avoid any sort of conflict or war. By doing so, the public is able to model their views and actions from the scripture they so heavily trust in. The usage of scripture in Paine’s logical argument not only …show more content…
Paine cites the origin of monarchy as the result of beliefs from “Heathens,” or people that lack a faith, and uses simile to compare these “Heathens” to the Jews of Israel, as they “copied the custom” of “government by kings” (lines 5-6). Although Paine’s audience is most likely not Jewish, they do have a common ground with Jews in that they have some sort of belief system when it comes to their faith. By using simile to compare the system that Jews use for monarchy as linked to Heathens that completely lack a base of faith, Paine is directly referring to monarchy as hedonistic. To those that do not have a belief in God or a faith, this citation by Paine is most likely not considered a negative thing; however, Paine utilizes the fact that his audience is majorly Christian to create concern for his cause. Just as Paine structurally compares the Jews and their monarchy to the Heathens’ viewpoints, the Christians that read Common Sense may feel great repulsion to the idea of being associated with such a seemingly blasphemous idea such as the hedonistic monarchy system. As the audience of Common Sense begins to associate monarchy with a lack of faith, gradually Paine will have spread his purpose of his message: release from the British monarchy. Paine therefore shows knowledge of his audience’s faith in Christianity in order to