William Godwin (1756-1836)

Because we are all most likely still standing in the Flunk Day’s shadow, it seems appropriate to take a closer look at William Godwin who was considered the father of philosophical anarchism. While our book goes into this slightly, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy goes into this further.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/godwin/

Mark Philp, the author of the page explains how Godwin thought that politics and government in general only served to cause more dependency on a system that can offer very little. This is turn causes the citizens who follow to have no understanding of why they follow the laws and practices of their government. Godwin did not believe in a giant revolt or uprising to get his point across, but rather the spreading of knowledge from individual person to person, which would ensure a real grasp of the concepts.

Although our book only focuses in on Godwin’s “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice” (1793), this site goes into more detail about his other works as well as giving a very thorough biography that goes into much more detail than just where he lived and when he wrote. Oddly enough, there was a period of time when Godwin wrote children’s books under the name Edward Baldwin when he wasn’t writing books about politics or philosophy. He had a wide range when we take into consideration that he went from writing “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice” to writing fables and bible stories for children.

This biography also focuses in on Godwin’s relationship with Mary Wollstonecraft as well as his own daughter Mary and son-in-law Percy Shelley. It is interesting to note that although Percy Shelley and Mary’s elopement caused the beginning of hardships in Godwin’s life, this did not stop him from taking advantage of the money his son-in-law had at his disposal.

This site also has an equally thorough biography and explanation of both Mary Wollstonecraft by Sylvana Tomaselli that would be just as beneficial to scroll through.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wollstonecraft/