GODWIN, WILLIAM. - Born at Wisbeach on 3 March 1756, died in London on 7 April 1836. A restless spirit, after studying at the "dissenting" College of Hoxton, he was appointed pastor of the "dissenting" group of Ware. Later he became a Socinian.
His principal writing is An enquiry concerning the principles of political justice (London 1793), in which is set forth the extreme formulation of an "anarchic" individualism and of a rationalistic abstractness that runs from opposition to every pedagogy tied to government all the way to the vision of property and of the marriage union as suffocating "liberty" (G. is also a bitter opponent of the mechanicism of military life, of military castes and of military secrecy itself). After the death of his wife and already his friend (1797), Mary Wollstonecraft (author of the Vindication of the rights of women [1792], where the thesis of the mixed school was maintained), G. had to overcome a profound crisis. Having remarried, he was a celebrated publisher for children.
Bibliography3 worksfor the bibliography up to 1932 v. B. Cellini, s. v. in Euc. Ital., XVII, p. 457; for further bibliography F. W. Bateson, The Cambridge bibl
BIBL.: for the bibliography up to 1932 v. B. Cellini, s. v. in Euc. Ital., XVII, p. 457; for further bibliography F. W. Bateson, The Cambridge bibliography of english literature, II, Cambridge 1940, pp. 655-56; v. also: G. Woodcock, W. G., a biographical study, London 1946.
Petrocchi, Massimo. “Godwin, william.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, col. 891. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/godwin-william.
MLA
Petrocchi, Massimo. “Godwin, william.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, col. 891. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/godwin-william.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec6_godwin_william,
author = {Petrocchi, Massimo},
title = {Godwin, william},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VI},
pages = {891},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/godwin-william}
}
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