In Thomas Paine's 1776 document Common Sense, Paine tries to convince the American colonies that they are being fraternized by Great Britain under false pretenses and that they should claim their immediate freedom from their oppressive and manipulative rule. In doing so, Paine effectively highlights many of the tenets of classical Christian anthropology, the doctrine that our founding fathers initially instilled into the American structure. He also provides examples of the British government to emphasize the principles of modern anthropology and to contrast classical Christian anthropology, or the government of the American colonies. My article will explore the anthropological principles that underlie Paine's argument in Common Sense and how he uses them to explore British rule over the American government. Thomas Paine begins his article by first exploring the differences between society and government. He explains that “society in any state is a blessing, but government, even at its best, is nothing more than a necessary evil.” (Frohnen 179) What he means by this is that having a society and a community is a privilege, because we as humans are designed to need human interaction, while government, on the other hand, is just a necessary evil, simply because we as well as human beings are designed to be inherently evil, and therefore government is a necessary evil to monitor wrongdoing or, in other words, to keep us from our vices. This emphasizes the classical Christian anthropological principle of duality, which is the internal struggle that we as human beings have between amor sui, the love of self, and amor dei, the love of God. This struggle arises from the fact that evil finds within the man, and we must put... in the middle of paper... their success simultaneously. Overall, Paine's argument for what the American settler government believes Many principles of classical Christian anthropology such as duality, limited government, moral consensus and deliberation, decentralized government, and reasonable expectations should be emphasized. He also uses the principles of Rousseau's Modern Anthropology when he rebukes Britain's tyrannical form of government, using examples such as the principle of unity and an unlimited, centralized form of government. He is a supporter of the freedom of the American colonists and a critic of Britain's hypocritical and manipulative monarchical system, and ultimately wants both to simply be free of each other, which is simply "common sense". Works Cited Frohnen, Bruce. The American Republic: primary sources. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002. Print.