Session One (103:44 minutes) RealAudio: Click Here to Listen   Help Listening
Session Two (103:31 minutes) RealAudio: Click Here to Listen   Help Listening

The focus of this seminar will be the thought of Thomas Paine, in particular his distinctive understanding of human freedom which he believed was the true meaning of American independence and the new American regime. We will begin with his pamphlet Common Sense and examine how in it Paine guides American colonials to take the decisive step from their complaints about Parliament's taxes to a view of England and monarchy as an evil from which Americans ought to separate themselves. We will then examine some of Paine's later writings in an attempt to understand his complete thought concerning the nature of political society and the best regime. A key issue for us in this connection will be Paine's views regarding religion. What was the relationship between Paine's critique of Christianity on the one hand and his endorsement of religious freedom on the other?

John C. Koritansky is Professor of Political Science at Hiram College, where he teaches American politics, public law, public administration, and political philosophy. Dr. Koritansky is the author of Alexis de Tocqueville and the New Science of Politics (Carolina Academic Press, 1986), and has edited and contributed to Public Administration in the United States (Focus Press, 1999). He has also authored numerous articles in political philosophy and public law. Dr. Koritansky received his A.B. from Cornell University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

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