Paper Summary:

The paper discusses William Godwin's major work, "An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice", which is an early elucidation of the political theory of anarchism. The paper defines anarchism and then compares this work to Marx's "Capital" and "The Communist Manifesto". The paper explores why William Godwin's work has had less public exposure and popularity than either of Marx's works.

From the Paper:

"While Karl Marx has become a famous thinker and philosopher through the wide dissemination of his two major works, Capital and The Communist Manifesto, a much lesser known figure has also contributed substantially to the perennial dialogue of radical political philosophies, and this man and his work is worthy of deeper analysis. This writer is William Godwin (1756-1836), who was nearly a contemporary of Marx and in his own way equally radical, yet significantly divergent in his thought. Godwin may be best known for having married the writer Mary Wollstonecraft, a groundbreaking feminist thinker in her own day, and for being the father of Mary Shelley of Frankenstein fame. Godwin's major work, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) is an early elucidation of the political theory of anarchism, and is worth analyzing in terms of the similarities it shares with Marx's communism (Landry, para 16)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Godwin, William. Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness. 4th Ed. 1842. Anarchy Archives. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/godwin/PJfrontpiece.html (No page numbers.)
• Landry, Peter. "William Godwin: Apostle of Universal Benevolence." BluPete. March 2001. Accessed 22 July 2007. http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Godwin.htm
• Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. Project Gutenberg. Accessed 22 July 2007.http://www.gutenberg.org/files/61/61.txt. (No page numbers.)

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