A Critical Study of the Relationship between the Human Reason and Democracy in

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses the relationship between the human reason and democracy in Benedictus Spinoza’s Theological Political Treatise (1670) and Paine’s The Age of Reason (1779). For both philosophers, the human reason is perfect. However, their determination of the relationship between democracy and the human reason discredits their claim about the perfection of the intellect.This study concludes that their premise implies paradoxes on the ability of the human reason to understand democracy.