GODWIN, William.

£6,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

An Enquiry concerning Political Justice, First edition of one of the most radical and far-reaching books of the years of revolution at the end of the 18th century, widely seen as the foundation of philosophical anarchism.Published just weeks after the execution of Louis XVI, Godwin's tract attacks all restraints on the exercise of individual judgement - in the belief that human opinions will become progressively more enlightened with the growth of knowledge. Among Godwin's targets were established religion and marriage, and he believed that government itself would ultimately become redundant. The book still speaks today for its eloquent defence of human liberty, but its contemporary influence was profound and lasting. Godwin, for all his lack of worldly success, was the epicentre of English radicalism. He subsequently married the most discussed, admired, criticized, and mythologized feminist intellectual in history, Mary Wollstonecraft; inspired and infuriated Percy Bysshe Shelley, who bankrolled him, then eloped with his daughter Mary, future author of Frankenstein; and published, among many others, Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and works illustrated by William Blake. As a text Political Justice had one hugely influential if contrary result: it directly inspired Malthus to formulate his Essay on Population.

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