Compare And Contrast Burke And Thomas Paine

Radical Revolution Vs. Gradual Change When we hear the terms “liberal” and “conservative” in the media today, we often associate “liberals” skewed to the left on the political spectrum, and “conservatives” skewed right. For the longest time, the term “liberal” outlines a society that is free with a democratic extent. Classical liberalism is based upon Locke’s philosophy of individual rights. Locke’s philosophy entails that a government exists to protect the natural and unalienable rights that individuals are born with. Levin describes both men: “Thomas Paine was a self-declared and unabashed revolutionary. Burke’s response was an intense and fiery opposition to developments in France” (Robinson). Firstly, two opposing viewpoints presented to the audience during the French Revolution involved the philosophies of Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. …show more content…
Many viewed the Enlightenment period as revolutionary, while Burke viewed it as being evolutionary, thus he believed in building upon the current status quo of their government; this was the foundation and building viewpoint of conservatism. Thomas Paine, on the other hand, was born in Southern England to a poor working-class family. He was a tax collector that moved to Pennsylvania in America and eventually became involved in the War for Independence. Paine valued independence on a much grander scale than Burke did, often basing his philosophy upon the views of John Locke, agreeing with the notion that humans are bound by natural laws and rights, and that “society is a function of individuals joining together by