トマス・ペイン

(とますぺいん Paine, Thomas)

Whenever I use the words freedom or rights, I desire to be understood to mean a perfect equality of them. Let the rich man enjoy his riches, and the poor man comfort himself in his poverty. But the floor of freedom is as level as water.

---Thomas Paine

Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the natural rights of others. -- Civil rights are those which appertain to man in right of his being a member of society. Every civil right has for its foundation, some natural right pre-existing in the individual, but to the enjoyment of which his individual power is not, in all cases, sufficiently competent. Of this kind are all those which relate to security and protection.

---Thomas Paine

[社会と政府の違いについて]
Society and government are different in themselves, and have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness. Society is in every state a blessing; government even in its best state but a necessary evil.

---Thomas Paine

憲法とは、単に名前だけのものではなく、事実あるものなのである。(中略) 憲法は政府に先立つ存在であり、政府は憲法から作り出されたものであるにすぎない。 一国の憲法は、その国の政府の行為ではなく、政府を構成する人民の行為であ るのだ。

---トマス・ペイン『人間の権利』


英国生まれの思想家(1737-1809)。 アメリカ革命が始まるころに渡米し、 『コモン・センス』(Common Sense, 1776)を出版して アメリカ独立に尽力し、 その後フランスに渡って国民議会に参加したり、 エドモンド・バークの『フランス革命についての省察』を批判した 『人の権利』(Rights of Man, 1791-2)を出版したりして、 フランス革命においても活躍した。

25/May/2001


上の引用は以下の著作から。


KODAMA Satoshi <kodama@ethics.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp>
Last modified: Thu May 4 16:17:46 JST 2017