“I contend for the rights of men and the liberty of reason.”
- Date
- 1790
Meaning of “I contend for the rights of men and…”
The line joins political rights with intellectual liberty: the argument is not merely for a different ruler but for people’s capacity to reason without inherited deference.
Where does it come from?
A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke; Wollstonecraft frames the pamphlet as a defense of human rights and the liberty of reason.