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Loading... Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Modern Morals and Happiness (original 1793; edition 1976)by William Godwin
Work InformationEnquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Modern Morals and Happiness by William Godwin (1793)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Interesting from the point of view of today's Occupy movement to see this early treatise on utopian anarchism... and yet as with so many anarchists, Godwin backs away from his most radical ideas, ultimately allowing that there is *some* place for government and property and class stratification, etc. And on the other end, it's also amusing to see him take his wildest ideas to their most ludicrous conclusions, as when he suggests that in the future, men will live forever and lose all desire for sex. Sure, why not? ( ) no reviews | add a review
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'To a rational being there can be but one rule of conduct, justice, and one mode of ascertaining that rule, the exercise of his understanding.' Godwin's Political Justice is the founding text of philosophical anarchism. Written in the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution, it exemplifies the political optimism felt by many writers and intellectuals. Godwin drew on enlightenment ideas and his background inreligious dissent for the principles of justice, utility, and the sanctity of individual judgement that drove his powerful critique of all forms of secular and religious authority. He predicts the triumph of justice andequality over injustice, and of mind over matter, and the eventual vanquishing of human frailty and mortality. He also foresees the gradual elimination of practices governing property, punishment, law, and marriage and the displacement of politics by an expanded personal morality resulting from reasoned argument and candid discussion. Political Justice raises deep philosophical questions about the nature of our duty to others that remain central to modern debates on ethics andpolitics. This edition reprints the first-edition text of 1793, and examines Godwin's evolving philosophy in the context of his life and work. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)320.01Social sciences Political Science Political Science Political Science Philosophy and TheoryLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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