Political Writing
| Part of a series on |
| Utilitarianism |
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Predecessors
Epicurus David Hume Claude Adrien Helvétius William Godwin Francis Hutcheson |
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Key people
Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill Henry Sidgwick Richard Mervyn Hare Peter Singer |
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Types of utilitarianism
Preference · Rule · Act Two-level · Total · Average Negative · Hedonism Enlightened self-interest |
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Key concepts
Pain · Suffering · Pleasure Utility · Happiness · Eudaimonia Consequentialism · Felicific calculus |
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Problems
Mere addition paradox Paradox of hedonism Utility monster |
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Related topics
Rational choice theory Game theory Social choice Neoclassical economics |
| Politics portal |
In response to a treason trial of some of his fellow British Jacobins, among them Thomas Holcroft, Godwin wrote Cursory Strictures on the Charge Delivered by Lord Chief Justice Eyre to the Grand Jury, October 2, 1794 where he forcefully argued that the prosecution's concept of "constructive treason" allowed a judge to construe any behaviour as treasonous. It paved the way for a major, but mostly moral, victory for the Jacobins, as they were acquitted.
However, Godwin's own reputation was eventually besmirched after 1798 by the conservative press, in part because he chose to write a candid biography of his late wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, entitled Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, including accounts of her two suicide attempts and her affair (before her relationship with Godwin) with the American adventurer Gilbert Imlay, which resulted in the birth of Fanny Imlay.
Godwin, consistent in his theory and stubborn in his practice, practically lived in secret for 30 years because of his reputation. However, in its influence on writers such as Shelley and Kropotkin, Political Justice takes its place with Milton's Areopagitica and Rousseau's Émile as a defining anarchist and libertarian text.
Read more about this topic: William Godwin
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