Godwin, William
Godwin, William ( 1756 – 1836 ),educated at Hoxton Academy. He was at first a Dissenting minister, but became an atheist and philosopher of anarchical views. He believed that men acted according to reason, that it was impossible to be rationally persuaded and not to act accordingly, that reason taught benevolence, and that therefore rational creatures could live in harmony without laws and institutions. He married Mary Wollstonecraft in 1797 ; she died at the birth of their daughter Mary, the future wife of Shelley , and Godwin subsequently married Mrs Clairmont , whose daughter by her first marriage, Claire Clairmont , bore a daughter, Allegra, to Lord Byron . Godwin produced in 1793 his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, in which he proclaimed that ‘Truth is omnipotent … Man is perfectible, or in other words susceptible of perpetual improvement.’ In 1794 he published The...
[The entire page is 223 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
