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Two thinkers, side by side

Life

Portrait of Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine

1737 CE – 1809 CE

EnlightenmentBritish

The corset-maker turned revolutionary whose pamphlets set two continents on fire, arguing in plain words that government rests on the consent of the living.

Portrait of John Locke
John Locke

1632 CE – 1704 CE

Early ModernEmpiricist

The mind begins as a blank slate. All knowledge comes from experience. He wrote the philosophy that launched modern democracy.

Connection

John Locke natural rights Thomas Paine — Paine drew on Locke's natural rights and consent of the governed in making the popular case for revolution.

Shared Ideas

The Social Contract

Shared Places

London

Ideas

The Social ContractEquality
EmpiricismThe Social ContractTolerance

Words

“These are the times that try men's souls.”

— Thomas Paine

“No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”

— John Locke

Key Moments

1737 CE

Born in England

1776 CE

Common Sense

1791 CE

Rights of Man

1794 CE

The Age of Reason

1632 CE

Born in Wrington, Somerset

1689 CE

Publishes Essay Concerning Human Understanding

1689 CE

Returns to England After the Glorious Revolution

1690 CE

Two Treatises of Government

Works

Common Sense

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Atlas of Thinkers

A story-first philosophy atlas. Explore history's greatest thinkers through place, time, movement, and ideas.

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Volume I · Ancient Greece · 624-262 BCE