An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
By: William Godwin ; edited with an introduction and notes by Mark Philp
Contributors: Philp, Mark
Series: Oxford world's classics
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Oxford, England
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 504
ISBN-13: 9780199642625
Subjects: Early works to 1800; Philosophy; Political science; Political ethics
Other titles: Political Justice
Description: 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 in religious 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 and equality 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 and politics.

This edition reprints the first-edition text of 1793, and examines Godwin’s evolving philosophy in the context of his life and work. 

(Source: [Oxford University Press](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/an-enquiry-concerning-political-justice-9780199642625))
Notes: "This edition reproduces the first edition text, published in quarto by G.G. J. and J. Robinson, Paternoster Row, London, 1793"--Page xxxv.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction
pagenum: ix; title: Note on the Text
pagenum: xxxv; title: Select Bibliography
pagenum: xl; title: A Chronology of William Godwin
pagenum: xlii; title: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
pagenum: 1; title: Explanatory Notes
pagenum: 473; title: Index
pagenum: 495