Skip to main content Skip to Search Box

Godwin, William (1756–1836)

From Encyclopedia of Libertarianism
William Godwin, the founder of philosophical anarchism and the author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)—one of the most significant political texts of its day—had a profound impact on a whole generation of writers, including the romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. The son of a dissenting minister, Godwin briefly entered the clergy, where he became familiar with the radical politics of Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, Thomas Paine, and the French philosophers of the Enlightenment. His anarchist leanings emerged quite early in his career. A character in the first book Godwin published under his own name, Sketches of History (1784), declared, “God Himself has no right to be a tyrant.” Godwin’s best-selling book, Political Justice , published during the French Revolution, established Godwin’s fame as a nonviolent anarchist and classical liberal. By political justice he meant the principles of morality and truth by which society properly worked. He believed…
158 results

Full text Article Godwin, William

From Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
While Godwin is perhaps best known today as the husband of the early English feminist Mary WOLLSTONECRAFT and as the father of novelist Mary SHELLEY , he was one of the most famous, and often infamous, radical philosophers and theologians of his time. The publication of his work An Enquiry…
| 819 words
Key concepts:
William Godwin (The Library of Congress)
William Godwin was a controversial British thinker and philosopher whose radical and anarchistic beliefs reflected the idea that all monarchies were “unavoidably corrupt” and that no person should have power over another. He objected to most social institutions, including marriage and the…
| 648 words , 1 image
Key concepts:

Full text Article GODWIN, WILLIAM 1756-1836

From Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850
For a brief period during the 1790s William Godwin was the most celebrated English writer of his day. His Political Justice gave him fame and notoriety in equal measure; as a radical political philosopher, he was at the center of a circle of thinkers that included Thomas Paine and Horne Tooke, and…
| 2,062 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article GODWIN, William (1756–1836)

From The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature
and his second wife Mary Jane (1766–1841) Publishers of many early 19th-cent. children's books. William Godwin also wrote and edited a number of juvenile works, either pseudonymously or anonymously. Godwin was the son of a Dissenting minister, and was for a time himself a Nonconformist preacher, but…
| 741 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Godwin, William (1756–1836),

From Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
English philosopher, novelist, and political writer. Godwin's main philosophical treatise, Enquiry concerning Political Justice (1793), aroused heated debate. He argued for radical forms of determinism, anarchism, and utilitarianism. Government corrupts everyone by encouraging stereotyped thinking…
| 251 words
Key concepts:
Born in Cambridgeshire, England, the son and grandson of austerely Calvinistic ministers, Godwin was relentlessly indoctrinated until the age of seventeen, first at home, and then as the sole pupil of a fierce dissenting minister in Norfolk. Dissenters were barred from the universities, so for his…
| 1,731 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article Godwin, William (1756–1836).

From The Oxford Companion to British History
English writer and novelist. In 1793 Godwin published his anarchist masterpiece Enquiry Concerning Political Justice , which caught the public imagination and made his reputation. He argued against the use of coercion of any kind, whether political, ecclesiastical, or military, not because it…
| 168 words
Key concepts:

Full text Article William Godwin 1756–1836

From The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
English social philosopher and novelist; husband of Mary wollstonecraft and father of Mary shelley Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species. An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Political Justice (1793) bk. 1, ch. 2 Love of our country is another of those…
| 179 words
Key concepts:
William Godwin (1756-1836) 1802 (oil on canvas) (b&w photo)
| 78 words , 1 image
Key concepts:
William Godwin (1756-1836) aged 48, from 'The Life of Charles Lamb, Volume I' by E.V. Lucas, published 1905 (litho)
| 86 words , 1 image
Key concepts:
Mind Map

Stack overflow
More Library Resources