The Architecture of Concepts: The Historical Formation of Human Rights

4. “The Rights of Man Were but Imperfectly Understood at the Revolution”: The Architecture of Rights of Man

This chapter explores how Tom Paine's Rights of Man put into circulation a phrase 'the rights of man'. It argues that this phrase is related but not identical to the concept 'rights of man' that was developed in the colonies before the American war of Independence. It demonstrates how a conceptual form works in the world and also how during the 1790's in Britain it was also effectively neutered.