Godwin, William (1756–1836)

English philosopher, novelist, and father of the writer Mary Shelley. His Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) advocated an anarchic society based on a faith in people's essential rationality. At first a Nonconformist minister, he later became an atheist. His first wife was Mary Wollstonecraft.

His novel The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) promoted his views.

Godwin was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, and studied at the Dissenting Academy, Hoxton, London. He became an active campaigner for civil liberties and eventually a publisher of children's books. Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness was written as part of the debate about the French Revolution.

His philosophical outlook was deterministic, yet he believed that people should increase their awareness of moral choices. Morality was defined by reference to the greatest general good, and he argued that selfish actions bring less pleasure than benevolent ones.

The Enquirer (1797) contains essays on education and economics. Other works include the novels St Leon (1799), Fleetwood (1805), and Mandeville (1817); Fables (1805) and other children's stories under the name E Baldwin; biographies of Wollstonecraft (1798) and Geoffrey Chaucer (1803); a number of political pamphlets; and The History of the Commonwealth (1824–28).