Revolutions: Three Perspectives: Rousseau's The Social Contract, Paine's Common Sense, and Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France

Freedom can lead to liberty, or it can descend into chaos. Rousseau's The Social Contract, Paine's Common Sense, and Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France encompass the ideas, progress, and results of reform and revolutionary change. Rousseau reasoned that people are born free and act as a collective sovereign - owing both freedom and duty under the auspices of the general will, embodied in government. Paine wrote Common Sense in the seminal year of 1775. Using a reasoned and accessible style, he brought forth numerous arguments to demonstrate the logic of launching an American Revolution. Burke's Reflections, while specifically aimed at the French Revolution, demonstrate the superiority of practical solutions over abstract concepts. Each of these works prominently displays the importance of changes leading to freedom. These works demarcate a firm delineation between constructive and destructive change and how it affects human freedom.