William Godwin was a English political philosopher who, while in the
ministry for which he was trained, had cast off his Toryism & Calvinism &
achieved a place of first importance as the interpreter to England of the
French Encyclopedists.
Godwin's ideal society is intensely equalitarian & a complete anarchy,
although he tolerated the idea of a loosely knit democratic transition that
would witness the withering of the State. Strongly antiviolence &
completely rationalistic he carried his doctrine to the point of total
alteration in human relations. Ignoring economics & starting from a highly
individualistic psychology, he argued for education & social conditioning
as the chief factors in character formation.
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice develops the thought of the
prerevolutionary school, is strongly influenced by Helvetius, & is an
argument for the perfectibility of the human species by way of a refutation
of contradictory theories & examination of such conditions as will perfect
the human community. In the philosophical debate over whether man is
governed by self-love, Godwin argued that man capable of a genuinely
disinterested benevolence.
The turning point in his career was the French Revolution, which spurred
him to write his major work, Political Justice, completed in 1793. Though
many were disillusioned after the early years of the Revolution, Godwin's
liberalism remained intact. The publication of this work gained him a
far-reaching contemporary fame.
In 1796 he renewed an acquaintance with Mary Wollstonecraft. They took up
residence together &, with the approaching birth of their child & despite
his attacks upon the institution of marriage, were married in 1797. Their
brief marriage, ended by the death of his wife, was described as his
happiest period.
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