Enquiry Concerning Political Justice: And Its Influence on Morals and Happiness
Written by William Godwin
Narrated by Michael Lunts
()
About this audiobook
It proved to be immediately popular and influential. Godwin, the son of a Calvinist preacher, was educated at Hoxton Academy, after which, he became a minister to a dissenter congregation in Ware. However, partially as a result of reading Rousseau, Helvetius and d' Holbach, his thinking changed and he left the ministry in 1783, the year the American war of Independence ended, by which point he had become a complete sceptic in matters of religion and turned to philosophy and ultimately to anarchism for the truth.
This was to be a period of huge political turmoil and continuing uncertainty, which had seen revolution in America and France, as well as the madness of King George III and the Regency crisis. It was a time of Whigs and Tories, of frenzied political argument and a flood of political pamphlet publishing.
The Enquiry came hot on the heels of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and Thomas Paine's Rights of Man (1791-1792) in a time that witnessed severe government repression of civil liberties. In essence it is a wide- ranging disquisition on moral and political philosophy. Its central message or theme is that of the potential for human perfectibility through the pursuit of reason and truth.
At times it has a visionary quality, which perhaps explains why its publication was met with such delighted excitement and approval by the young Romantic poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and others. It appeared in a moment of great optimism, when there was a sense that the revolution would lead to sweeping reforms and the abolition of ancient abuses of privilege and inequality and hopes that traditional antagonisms and hostilities between England and France would soon come to an end.
For a brief period Godwin was very much the toast of the town, but as the excesses of the Terror mounted in France and the heads rolled beneath the guillotine, thinking changed, attitudes hardened and the mood darkened. Godwin's star fell as rapidly as it had risen. England and France would go to war and as quickly as Godwin had been taken up by the young radicals he was cast aside by them as they matured into conservatives, both socially and politically, rejecting many of the ideas that had seemed so appealing to their younger selves.
Godwin was seen as a figurehead for dangerous ideas and as being a representative of the somewhat wilder and more extreme ideas of the young Jacobins. Consequently, he became a scapegoat to be satirised and attacked. It is important to note, however, that although his book was published during revolutionary times Godwin, who was spoken of in social circles as ‘The Philosopher', never advocated violent revolutionary change but indeed insisted that change had to come about gradually and peacefully. He argued that people had to be persuaded, not coerced and advocated systematic philosophical radicalism since history had demonstrated that those who overthrew tyrants with violence frequently became tyrants themselves. Godwin's anarchist vision of society comprises three basic principles: ‘political simplicity', ‘public inspection' and ‘positive sincerity'. He declares in effect that there must be a complete restructuring of human society, prefiguring later thinkers such as Marx in maintaining th
William Godwin
William Godwin (1756-1836) was an English political philosopher and novelist. Born to a middle-class Calvinist family, Godwin was raised by his mother following his father’s death. Encouraged to follow in his father’s footsteps as a minister, Godwin studied at Hoxton Academy under Andrew Kippis, Abraham Rees, and Robert Sandeman, influential nonconformist clergymen and theologians. While serving as a minister in the town of Ware, Godwin was introduced to the teachings of the French Encyclopédistes by Joseph Fawcett, a radical dissenter and proud republican. With this background in political philosophy, Godwin launched a career as a prominent intellectual who proposed the abolition of political, social, and religious institutions. His most influential work, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), is considered one of the earliest modern defenses of anarchism and elevated Godwin to the center of a national debate involving the British response to the French Revolution. The following year, Godwin published Caleb Williams; Or, Things as They Are (1794), a mystery novel based on the principles set forth in his popular work of political philosophy. In 1797, Godwin married English feminist and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, having met her years earlier through Joseph Johnson, their mutual publisher. That year, Wollstonecraft died shortly after giving birth, leaving the infant and Fanny, her daughter from a previous marriage, in Godwin’s care. Remarrying in 1801, Godwin raised his daughter Mary—who later married Percy Bysshe Shelley and wrote the novel Frankenstein (1818)—alongside his adopted children while running a bookshop and publishing house specializing in children’s literature.
Related to Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
Related audiobooks
The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic That Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World as I See It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heretics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Revolution: The War for Independence and the Birth of the United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5David Hume: Understanding His Philosophical Works and Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Essential Enlightenment (Essential Scholars) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhilosophy: All the Basics from Some Renowned Philosophers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gothic Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grandees: America's Sephardic Elite Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Caleb Williams or Things As They Are Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Secret Societies and Subversive Movements Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEdmund Burke: The First Conservative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philosophy: Ancient and Modern Philosophers Who Made an Impact Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The History of Political Thought: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Essential David Hume (Essential Scholars) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsColonialism: A Moral Reckoning Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Enlightenment: Reason, Tolerance, and Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paranoid Style in American Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Professor Schlick: The Rise and Fall of the Vienna Circle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Science of Getting Rich: Complete and Original Signature Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Essential Women of Liberty (Essential Scholars) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSerious Call to a Devout and Holy Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Karl Marx: An Essay Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Secular Enlightenment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Political Ideologies For You
Get It Together: Troubling Tales from the Liberal Fringe Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Communist Manifesto (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Controversial Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascism: A Warning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Marxism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who's Afraid of Gender? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (And How I Got Out) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why We're Polarized Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Democrat Party Hates America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emergent Strategy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long Slide: Thirty Years in American Journalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
0 ratings0 reviews