Search
Search Results
Article
Natural Rights & the Enlightenment
The idea of natural rights is the concept used in philosophy and legal studies that a person has certain rights from birth and which, because they were not awarded by a particular state or legal authority, cannot be removed, that is, they...
Article
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen) is a human rights document adopted in the early stages of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Inspired by Enlightenment Age principles...
Image
Title Page, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
The title page of A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797). The book, first published in 1792, called for greater educational opportunities for women and equality with men. (Library of Congress)
Definition
State of Nature
The state of nature is an idea which became especially popular with certain philosophers during the Enlightenment, notably Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). It refers to a state of existence...
Definition
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was an Anglo-American Enlightenment thinker whose radical ideas were taken up by revolutionaries in both the American Revolution (1765-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799). A Founding Father through his influence...
Definition
Animal Husbandry
Animal husbandry is commonly defined as a branch of agriculture dealing with the domestication, breeding, and rearing of animals for various purposes including labor (as in the case of large animals), a food source, protection, and companionship...
Video
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (French Revolution: Part 4)
The long-awaited fourth installment of my French Revolution series addresses the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which was passed by the National Assembly in 1789. The Declaration outlines the principles of the French Revolution...
Article
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is the foundational document of the United States of America. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, it explains why the Thirteen Colonies decided to separate from Great Britain during the American Revolution...
Article
Pizan's The Status of Women & the Reformation
The Book of the City of the Ladies (1405) by Christine de Pizan (l. 1364 - c. 1430) is considered by many scholars to be the first work of feminist literature, predating A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft by...
Image
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
A representation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, oil on canvas by Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier, c. 1789.
Musée Carnavalet, Paris.