Ever since government has existed, there have been those who oppose it. Not all of this opposition has been as violent or blunt as anarchy, whose entire purpose is to eliminate all government. Anarchy was first put forth by William Godwin in An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. How did a book with such a mundane title hold within it the ideas that advocated the overthrow of all governments? Godwin was a political philosopher during the late 18th century, and this book was published during the French Revolution. He did not begin writing this book as a manifesto to anarchy, instead it became the natural conclusion of his arguments. He revised this book three times, working on a fourth edition before he died. He made these revisions to amend the book with knowledge he had accrued since previous publication. This, coincidentally, removed some of the more extreme ideas in Political Justice.
The reason for delving into this political text is to find what actually exists at the core of anarchy. While political movements evolve over time, their main “thesis statement” tends to remain the same, even if it is just opposition to another movement. Anarchy in particular has gone from Godwin’s initial stance that government will eventually deteriorate and disappear to a more active insurrection concept. The evils of government espoused by Political Justice should, however, exist in some form in today’s anarchy, and by understanding that we can understand the reasoning of anarchy a bit more. In order to find these ideals, processing the book itself is necessary. Perhaps going in-depth into specific portions, but not all of it, because Political Justice is incredibly long, being separated into 8 books. Furthermore, only the 3rd and final edition will be processed, because they will portray the most educated views of William Godwin.