He's not the Godwin for whom
Godwin's Law is named. (that one is
Mike Godwin.) However, William Godwin was still a pretty interesting guy.
Even if Godwin had never done anything himself, he'd deserve some credit for cool family connections. After all, his daughter,
Mary Shelley, managed to marry
Percy Shelley and write
Frankenstein. His wife,
Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote some pretty cool early
feminist stuff like
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. (I'm not sure she understood the concept of
ending a sentence, but if you can wade through her style the ideas are pretty cool.)
In fact, though, Godwin also did quite a bit himself! He was a writer and idealistic liberal
philosopher, one of the great stars of the 1790s. His thinking anticipated the full bloom of the English literary
Romantic Movement by advancing
atheism and personal
freedom. Ironically, he's been accused of laying the foundations for the doctrines of both
communism and
anarchy. (In fact he believed in giving property to those who need it most, not in complete communilization.)
Works include:
An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (1793),
The Enquirer (1797),
Thoughts on Man: His Nature, Production, and Discoveries (1831), and
Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794).
fact-checking courtesy of www.britannica.com!