For other people named William Godwin see William Godwin (disambiguation). William Godwin Born 3 March 1756(1756-03-03) Wisbech Cambridgeshire UK Died 7 April 1836(1836-04-07) (aged 80) London UK Occupation Journalist Political philosopher novelist Influences Edmund Burke Influenced Robert Owen Oscar Wilde Peter Kropotkin Herbert Read

William Godwin (3 March 1756  7 April 1836) was a British journalist political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism.1 Godwin is most famous for two books that he published within the space of a year: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice an attack on political institutions and Things as They Are; or The Adventures of Caleb Williams which attacks aristocratic privilege but also is virtually the first mystery novel. Based on the success of both Godwin featured prominently in the radical circles of London in the 1790s. In the ensuing conservative reaction to British radicalism Godwin was attacked in part because of his marriage to the pioneering feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft in 1797 and his candid biography of her after her death; their child Mary Godwin (later Mary Shelley) would go on to author Frankenstein and marry the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Godwin wrote prolifically in the genres of novels history and demography throughout his lifetime. With his second wife Mary Jane Clairmont he wrote children's primers on Biblical and classical history which he published along with such works as Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. Using the pseudonym Edward Baldwin he wrote a variety of books for children including a version of Jack and the Beanstalk.2 He also has had considerable influence on British literature and literary culture. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Early writing 3 Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Caleb Williams 4 Political writing 5 Interpretation of political justice 6 Debate with Malthus 7 Interest in earthly immortality 8 Major works 9 See also 10 Notes 11 Further reading 12 External links Early life and education

Godwin was born in Wisbech in Cambridgeshire to John and Anne Godwin. Godwin's family on both sides were middle-class. It was probably only in jest that Godwin a stern political reformer and philosophical radical attempted to trace his pedigree to a time before the Norman Conquest to the great Earl Godwin. Godwin's parents adhered to a strict form of Calvinism. His father a Nonconformist minister in Guestwick in Norfolk died young and never inspired love or much regret in his son; but in spite of wide differences of opinion tender affection always subsisted between William Godwin and his mother until her death at an advanced age.

William Godwin was educated for his father's profession at Hoxton Academy where he studied under Andrew Kippis the biographer and Dr Abraham Rees of the Cyclopaedia. At the age of 11 he became the sole pupil of Samuel Newton who was a disciple of Robert Sandeman. Godwin later characterized Newton as "... a celebrated north country apostle who after Calvin damned ninety-nine in a hundred of mankind has contrived a scheme for damning ninety-nine in a hundred of the followers of Calvin.3 "

He then acted as a minister at Ware Stowmarket and Beaconsfield. At Stowmarket the teachings of the French philosophers were brought before him by a friend Joseph Fawcett who held strong republican opinions. Godwin came to London in 1782 still nominally as a minister to regenerate society with his pen a real enthusiast who shrank theoretically from no conclusions from the premises which he laid down. He adopted the principles of the Encyclopaedists and his own aim was the complete overthrow of all existing institutions political social and religious. He believed however that calm discussion was the only thing needful to carry every change and from the beginning to the end of his career he deprecated every approach to violence. He was a philosophic radical in the strictest sense of the term. Early writing

His first published work was an anonymous Life of Lord Chatham (1783). He published under his own name Sketches of History (1784) consisting of six sermons on the characters of Aaron Hazael and Jesus in which though writing in the character of an orthodox Calvinist he enunciates the proposition "God Himself has no right to be a tyrant." Introduced by Andrew Kippis he began to write in 1785 for the New Annual Register and other periodicals producing also three novels now forgotten. His main contributions for the "Annual Register" were the Sketches of English History he wrote annually which were yearly summaries of domestic and foreign political affairs. He joined a club called the "Revolutionists" and associated much with Lord Stanhope Horne Tooke and Holcroft. Part of the Politics series on Anarchism Schools of thought  Buddhist  Capitalist  Christian  Collectivist  Communist  Egoist  Existentialist  Feminist  Green  Individualist  Infoanarchism  Insurrectionary  Leftist  Mutualist  National  Nihilist  Naturist  Pacifist  Philosophical  Platformist  Post-anarchist  Post-colonial  Post-left  Primitivist  Queer  Social  Syndicalist  Synthesist  Vegan  Voluntaryist  Without adjectives  Zen Theory  practice Anarchy  Affinity group  Black bloc  Class struggle   Communes  Consensus democracy  Decentralization  Deep ecology  Direct action  Direct democracy  Dual power  Especifismo  Expropriative anarchism  Free association  Freethought  Horizontalidad    Illegalism  Individualism  Individual reclamation  Isocracy    Law  Participatory politics  Permanent Autonomous Zone  Prefigurative politics  Propaganda of the deed  Refusal of work  Revolution  Rewilding  Social ecology  Social insertion  Somatherapy  Spontaneous order  Squatting  Temporary Autonomous Zone  Union of egoists People William Godwin  Josiah Warren  Max Stirner  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon  Mikhail Bakunin  Henry David Thoreau  Leo Tolstoy  Peter Kropotkin  Benjamin Tucker  Johann Most  Errico Malatesta  Emma Goldman  Nestor Makhno  Alexander Berkman   Buenaventura Durruti  mile Armand  Rudolf Rocker  Volin  Murray Bookchin  Colin Ward  John Zerzan  Alfredo M. Bonanno Issues Anarcho-capitalism  Animal rights  Capitalism  Criticisms  Islam  LGBT rights  Lifestylism  Marxism  Nationalism  Orthodox Judaism  Religion  Sex/love  Violence  Antimilitarism History 1999 WTO Conference protest  1919 United States anarchist bombings  Amakasu Incident  Anarchist Catalonia  Anarchist Exclusion Act  Australian Anarchist Centenary  Barcelona May Days  Biennio rosso  Carnival Against Capitalism  Escuela Moderna  Hague Congress  Haymarket affair  High Treason Incident  Congress of Amsterdam  Kate Sharpley Library  Kronstadt rebellion  Labadie Collection  LIP  Manifesto of the Sixteen  May 1968   May Day  Paris Commune  Provo  Red inverted triangle  Free Territory of Ukraine Spanish Revolution  Third Russian Revolution  Tragic Week  Trial of the thirty Culture Anarchist Bookfair  Anarcho-punk  Arts  Black anarchism  Culture jamming  DIY culture  Freeganism  Independent Media Center  Infoshop  The Internationale  Jewish anarchism  Land and liberty  Lifestylism  Popular education  Property is theft!  Radical cheerleading  Radical environmentalism  Squatting  Symbolism  Terminology  A las barricadas Economics Collectivism  Communism  Co-operatives  Counter-economics  Free school  Free store  Gift economy  Infoanarchism  Market abolitionism  Mutual aid  Mutualism  Participatory economics  Planned Economy  Really Really Free Market    Syndicalism  Wage slavery  Workers' self-management By region Africa  Australia  Austria-Hungary  Brazil  Canada  China  Cuba  Ecuador  England  France  Greece  India  Iceland  Ireland  Israel  Italy  Japan  Korea  Mexico  Poland  Russia  Spain  Sweden  Turkey  Ukraine  United States  Vietnam Lists Anarcho-punk bands  Communities  Fictional characters  Jewish anarchists  Musicians  Organizations  Periodicals  Poets  Russian anarchists Related topics Anti-capitalism  Anti-consumerism  Anti-corporatism  Anti-fascism  Anti-globalization  Antimilitarism  Anti-statism  Anti-war  Autarchism  Autonomism  Labour movement  Left communism  Libertarianism  Libertarian perspectives on revolution Libertarian socialism  Situationist International   Anarchism Portal Politics portal v d e Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Caleb Williams

In 1793 while the French Revolution was in full swing Godwin published his great work on political science Enquiry concerning Political Justice and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness. The first part of this book was largely a recap of Edmund Burke's A Vindication of Natural Society - an anarchist critique of the state. Godwin acknowledged the influence of Burke for this portion. The rest of the book is Godwin's positive vision of how an anarchist (or minarchist) society might work. Political Justice was extremely influential in its time: after the writings of Burke and Paine Godwin's was the most popular written response to the French Revolution. Godwin's work was seen by many as illuminating a middle way between the fiery extremes of Burke and Paine. Prime Minister William Pitt famously said that there was no need to censor it because at over 1 it was too costly for the average Briton to buy. However as was the practice at the time numerous "corresponding societies" took up Political Justice either sharing it or having it read to the illiterate members. Eventually it sold over 4000 copies and brought literary fame to Godwin.

Godwin augmented the influence of Political Justice with the publication of a novel that proved equally popular Things as They Are; or The Adventures of Caleb Williams. This tells the story of a servant who finds out a dark secret about Falkland his aristocratic master and is forced to flee because of his knowledge. Caleb Williams is essentially the first thriller:4 Godwin wryly remarked that some readers were consuming in a night what took him over a year to write. Not the least of its merits is a portrait of the justice system of England and Wales at the time and a prescient picture of domestic espionage. Yet Godwin's strenuous Calvinism still obtains albeit in secular form. At the conclusion of the novel when Caleb Williams finally confronts Falkland the encounter result in a fatal wound to the Lord who immediately admits the justness of Williams' cause. Far from feeling release or happiness Williams only sees the destruction of someone who remains for him a noble if fallen person. Implicitly Caleb Williams ratifies Godwin's assertion that society must be reformed in order for individual behaviour to be reformed an emphasis that allies him more with Marxism and anarchism than with liberalism. His literary method as he described it in the introduction to the novel also proved influential: Godwin began with the conclusion of Caleb being chased through Britain and Ireland and developed the plot backwards. Dickens and Poe both commented on Godwin's ingenuity in doing this. Political writing Part of a series on Utilitarianism Predecessors Epicurus David Hume  William Godwin  Francis Hutcheson People Jeremy Bentham  John Stuart Mill Henry Sidgwick  Richard Mervyn Hare  Peter Singer Types of utilitarianism Preference  Rule  Act Two-level  Total  Average Relative  Negative  Hedonism Enlightened self-interest Key concepts Pain  Suffering  Pleasure Utility  Happiness  Eudaimonia Consequentialism  Felicific calculus Problems Mere addition paradox Paradox of hedonism Utility monster Related topics Rational choice theory  Game theory Social choice  Neoclassical economics   Politics portal v d e

In response to a treason trial of some of his fellow British Jacobins among them Thomas Holcroft Godwin wrote Cursory Strictures on the Charge Delivered by Lord Chief Justice Eyre to the Grand Jury October 2 1794 where he forcefully argued that the prosecution's concept of "constructive treason" allowed a judge to construe any behaviour as treasonous. It paved the way for a major but mostly moral victory for the Jacobins as they were acquitted.

However Godwin's own reputation was eventually besmirched after 1798 by the conservative press in part because he chose to write a candid biography of his late wife Mary Wollstonecraft including accounts of her two suicide attempts and her affair (before her relationship with Godwin) with the American adventurer Gilbert Imlay which resulted in the birth of Fanny Imlay. Godwin consistent in his theory and stubborn in his practice practically lived in secret for 30 years because of his reputation. However in its influence on writers such as Shelley and Kropotkin Political Justice takes its place with Milton's Areopagitica and Rousseau's mile as a defining anarchist and libertarian text. Interpretation of political justice By the words "political justice" the author meant "the adoption of any principle of morality and truth into the practice of a community" and the work was therefore an inquiry into the principles of society of government and of morals. For many years Godwin had been "satisfied that monarchy was a species of government unavoidably corrupt" and from desiring a government of the simplest construction he gradually came to consider that "government by its very nature counteracts the improvement of original mind" demonstrating anti-statist beliefs that would later be considered anarchist. Believing in the perfectibility of the race that there are no innate principles and therefore no original propensity to evil he considered that "our virtues and our vices may be traced to the incidents which make the history of our lives and if these incidents could be divested of every improper tendency vice would be extirpated from the world." All control of man by man was more or less intolerable and the day would come when each man doing what seems right in his own eyes would also be doing what is in fact best for the community because all will be guided by principles of pure reason. Such optimism combined with a strong empiricism to support Godwin's belief that the evil actions of men were solely reliant on the corrupting influence of social conditions and that changing these conditions could remove the evil in man. This is similar to the ideas of his wife Mary Wollstonecraft concerning the shortcomings of women as due to discouragement during their upbringing. Godwin did not believe that all coercion and violence was immoral per se as Bakunin and Tolstoy did but rather recognized the need for government in the short term and hoped that the time would come when it would be unnecessary. Thus he was a gradualist anarchist rather than a revolutionary anarchist; Godwin supported the ideology behind the French Revolution but certainly not its means. Neither was he as egalitarian as most anarchists are but he simply thought that discrimination on grounds other than ability was immoral. His utilitarian case for saving the Archbishop of Canterbury before his mother from a burning house is seen as abhorrent even by many egalitarians. Debate with Malthus In 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population in response to Godwin's views on the "perfectibility of society." Malthus wrote that populations inclined to increase in times of plenty and that only distress from causes such as food shortages disease or war served to stem population growth. Populations were therefore always doomed to grow until distress was felt at least by the poorer segment of the society. Consequently poverty was an inevitable phenomenon of society. "Let us imagine for a moment Mr. Godwin's beautiful system of equality realized in its utmost purity and see how soon this difficulty might be expected to press under so perfect a form of society....Let us suppose all the causes of misery and vice in this island removed. War and contention cease. Unwholesome trades and manufactories do not exist. Crowds no longer collect together in great and pestilent cities...Every house is clean airy sufficiently roomy and in a healthy situation.... And the necessary labours of agriculture are shared amicably among all. The number of persons and the produce of the island we suppose to be the same as at present. The spirit of benevolence guided by impartial justice will divide this produce among all the members of the society according to their wants....With these extraordinary encouragements to population and every cause of depopulation as we have supposed removed the numbers would necessarily increase faster than in any society that has ever yet been known....""5 Malthus goes on to argue that under such ideal conditions the population could conceivable double every 25 years. However the food supply could not continue doubling at this rate for even 50 years. The food supply would become inadequate for the growing population and then: "the mighty law of self-preservation expels all the softer and more exalted emotions of the soul.... The corn is plucked before it is ripe or secreted in unfair proportions; and the whole black train of vices that belong to falsehood are immediately generated. Provisions no longer flow in for the support of the mother with a large family. The children are sickly from insufficient food.... No human institutions here existed to the perverseness of which Mr. Godwin ascribes the original sin of the worst men. No opposition had been produced by them between public and private good. No monopoly had been created of those advantages which reason directs to be left in common. No man had been goaded to the breach of order by unjust laws. Benevolence had established her reign in all hearts: and yet in so short a period as within fifty years violence oppression falsehood misery every hateful vice and every form of distress which degrade and sadden the present state of society seem to have been generated by the most imperious circumstances by laws inherent in the nature of man and absolutely independent of it human regulations."5 In Political Justice Godwin acknowledged that an increase in the standard of living via his proposals could cause population pressures but he saw an obvious solution to avoiding distress: project a change in the structure of human action if not of human nature specifically the eclipsing of the desire for sex by the development of intellectual pleasures.6 In the 1798 version of his essay Malthus specifically rejected this possible change in human nature. In the second and subsequent editions however he wrote that widespread moral restraint i.e. postponement of marriage and pre-nuptial celibacy (sexual abstinence) could reduce the tendency of a population to grow until distress was felt.".7 In 1820 Godwin published Of Population: An Enquiry Concerning the Power of Increase in the Numbers of Mankind as a rebuttal to Malthuss essays. Godwin's main argument was against Malthus's notion that population tended to grow exponentially. Godwin believed that for population to double every twenty-five years (as Malthus had asserted had occurred in the United States due to the expanse of resources available there) every married couple would have to have at least eight children given the rate of childhood deaths. Godwin himself was one of thirteen children but he did not observe the majority of couples having eight children. He therefore concluded: "In reality if I had not taken up the pen with the express purpose of confuting all the errors of Mr Malthuss book and of endeavouring to introduce other principles more cheering more favourable to the best interests of mankind and better prepared to resist the inroads of vice and misery I might close my argument here and lay down the pen with this brief remark that when this author shall have produced from any country the United States of North America not excepted a register of marriages and births from which it shall appear that there are on an average eight births to a marriage then and not till then can I have any just reason to admit his doctrine of the geometrical ratio."6 Interest in earthly immortality In his first edition of Political Justice Godwin included arguments favouring the possibility of "earthly immortality" (what would now be called physical immortality) but later editions of the book omitted this topic. Although the belief in such a possibility is consistent with his philosophy regarding perfectibility and human progress he probably dropped the subject because of political expedience when he realized that it might discredit his other views.8 Godwin explored the themes of life extension and immortality in his gothic novel St. Leon which became popular (and notorious) at the time of its publication in 1799 but is now mostly forgotten. St. Leon may have perversely provided inspiration for his daughter's novel Frankenstein.9 Major works Enquiry concerning Political Justice and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (1793) Things as They Are; or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) The Enquirer (1797) Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798) St. Leon (1799) Fleetwood (1805) Mandeville (1817) History of the Commonwealth (182428) Cloudesley: A Tale (1830) Thoughts on Man his Nature Productions and Discoveries Interspersed with some particulars respecting the author (1831) Deloraine (1833) Lives of the Necromancers (1834) See also Godwin-Shelley family tree Notes William Godwin entry by Mark Philip in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2006-05-20 Jones William B. (November 2001) (Hardback). Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History (Abridged ed.). McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786410774.  Cedric J. Robinson (1980). The terms of order: political science and the myth of leadership. SUNY Press. p. 171. ISBN 9780873954112. http://books.google.com/idLhYV14mscZUC&pgPA171  Marshall Peter (1992). Demanding the Impossible. Harper Collins. p. 196.  a b An essay on the principle of population (1798) Chap. 10. a b Medema Steven G. and Warren J. Samuels. 2003. The History of Economic Thought: A Reader. New York: Routledge. Geoffrey Gilbert introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. xviii Siobhan Ni Chonailla (2007). "Why may not man one day be immortal: Population perfectibility and the immortality question in Godwin's Political Justice". History of European Ideas 33 (1): 2539. doi:10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2006.06.003. http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienceobArticleURL&udiB6V9C-4KHC2WY-2&user10&rdoc1&fmt&origsearch&sortd&viewc&acctC000050221&version1&urlVersion0&userid10&md51bca737f15f7e5f78a8226406adf6975.  "Godwin William (1756 - 1836) Introduction". Gothic Literature. enotes.com. 2008. http://www.enotes.com/gothic-literature/godwin-william. Retrieved 2008-08-09. dead link  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm Hugh ed (1911). Encyclopdia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.  Further reading Marshall P.William Godwin London & New Haven (1984): Yale University Press ISBN 0300031750 Marshall P. (ed.) The Anarchist Writings of William Godwin London (1986): Freedom Press ISBN 9780900384295 Mukherjee S. & Ramaswamy S. William Godwin: His Thoughts and Works New Delhi (2002): Deep & Deep Publications ISBN 9788171007547 External links Wikisource has original works written by or about: William Godwin Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: William Godwin Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Godwin William Godwin's Diary William Godwin Godwin archive entry at the Anarchy Archives William Godwin entry by Mark Philip in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2006-05-20 Works of William Godwin at eBooks@Adelaide Works by William Godwin at Project Gutenberg Letters and artefacts associated with Godwin at the Bodleian Library's Shelley's Ghost online exhibition v d eFigures in the Age of Enlightenment by country or region  Notable figures America (English) Benjamin Franklin  Thomas Jefferson  James Madison  Thomas Paine America (Latin) Simn Bolvar   Eugenio Espejo   Jos Joaqun Fernndez de Lizardi  Servando Teresa de Mier  Francisco de Miranda  Simn Rodrguez England Edward Gibbon  Thomas Hobbes   Samuel Johnson  Edmund Burke (Irish born)   John Locke   Isaac Newton   Robert Walpole France Montesquieu  Franois Quesnay  Voltaire  Buffon  Jean-Jacques Rousseau  Denis Diderot  Helvtius  Jean le Rond d'Alembert  Baron d'Holbach  Condorcet  tienne Bonnot de Condillac Germany Immanuel Kant  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing  Johann Gottfried von Herder  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  Friedrich Schiller  Moses Mendelssohn Greece Adamantios Korais  Rigas Feraios  Theophilos Kairis  Eugenios Voulgaris Hungary Ferenc Kazinczy  Jzsef Krmn  Jnos Batsnyi  Mihly Fazekas Italy Cesare Beccaria  Antonio Genovesi Low Countries Hugo Grotius  Baruch Spinoza  Franciscus van den Enden Poland-Lithuania Stanisaw Konarski  Ignacy Krasicki  Hugo Kotaj  Stanisaw Staszic  Jan niadecki  Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz  Jdrzej niadecki Portugal Sebastio Jos de Carvalho e Melo 1st Marquess of Pombal Russia Mikhail Lomonosov  Ivan Shuvalov  Ivan Betskoy  Ekaterina Dashkova  Nikolay Novikov  Mikhail Shcherbatov  Alexander Radishchev Scandinavia Anders Chydenius  Peter Forsskl  Gustav III  Ludvig Holberg  Arvid Horn  Johan Henric Kellgren  Eggert lafsson   Henrik Gabriel Porthan  Jens Schielderup Sneedorff  Johann Friedrich Struensee  Emanuel Swedenborg Scotland Joseph Black  James Boswell  Robert Burns  Adam Ferguson  Francis Hutcheson  David Hume  James Hutton  Lord Kames  Lord Monboddo  James Macpherson  Thomas Reid  William Robertson  Adam Smith  Dugald Stewart  James Watt Serbia Dositej Obradovi Spain Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos  Benito Jernimo Feijoo  Antonio de Ulloa Ukraine Hryhorii Skovoroda  Ivan Kotlyarevsky  Related topics Atheism  Capitalism  Civil liberties  Counter-Enlightenment  Critical thinking  Deism  Democracy  Empiricism  Enlightened absolutism  Free markets  Haskalah  Humanism  Liberalism  Natural philosophy  Rationality  Reason  Sapere aude  Science  Socialism  Secularism  French Encyclopdistes  Weimar Classicism v d eMary Wollstonecraft General Henry Fuseli  Gilbert Imlay  Joseph Johnson  William Godwin  Fanny Imlay  Mary Shelley  Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman  Timeline Works Thoughts on the Education of Daughters  Mary: A Fiction  Analytical Review  Original Stories from Real Life  A Vindication of the Rights of Men  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman  Letters Written in Sweden Norway and Denmark  Maria: or The Wrongs of Woman v d eMary Shelley People William Godwin  Mary Wollstonecraft  Percy Bysshe Shelley  Claire Clairmont  Fanny Imlay  Lord Byron  John Polidori  Percy Florence Shelley  Thomas Jefferson Hogg Works Mounseer Nongtongpaw  History of a Six Weeks' Tour  Frankenstein  Mathilda  Proserpine   Midas  Valperga  Maurice  The Last Man  The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck  "The Mortal Immortal"   Lodore  Falkner  Rambles in Germany and Italy  Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men  List of works by Mary Shelley Persondata Name Godwin William Alternative names Short description Journalist Philosopher Novelist Date of birth 3 March 1756 Place of birth Wisbech Cambridgeshire GB (now UK) Date of death 7 April 1836 Place of death UK