William Godwin citáty

William Godwin bol anglický spisovateľ, zakladateľ filozofického anarchizmu.

Jeho manželka Mary Wollstonecraftová, spisovateľka, bola zakladateľka militantného feminizmu a dcéra Mary Shelleyová, spisovateľka, sa preslávila hororovým románom Frankenstein alebo Moderný Prometeus.

William Godwin sa považuje za zakladateľa anarchistického komunizmu, ktorý mal byť postupne nastolený mierovou cestou a to presvedčovaním apelom na svedomie, na pravdu. Považoval štát za ťarchu ľudstva a človeka ktorý je dotlačený práve spoločnosťou organizovanou v štáte k trestnému činu a páchaniu zla. Dielom Skúmanie politickej spravodlivosti a jej vplyvu na morálku a šťastie za začal radiť medzi tých myšlienkových revolucionárov, medzi odporcu toho, čo bolo zaužívané vlastne niekoľko tisíc rokov vznikom štátu a občianskej spoločnosti. Jeho myšlienky boli pre vtedajšiu spoločnosť kacírske tým že sa snažil postaviť zákon mimo zákon, vládu mimo moc a prezentoval ich ako základ na ktorom môže zlo budovať. Ale nehlásal ich zničenie a potlačenie na základe ozbrojenej násilnej revolúcie, ale na základe mierumilovnej ale radikálnej reforme či skôr revolúcie ľudského myslenia a morálky. Zákon, práva a povinnosti považoval za zbytočné na to aby človek využil všetky svoje kapacity v prospech všeobecného dobra stačí rozum. Jeho ideálom boli sebestačné komunity, združenia na lokálnej úrovni, v ktorých každý rešpektuje zákon rozumu, vnímajúc všeobecné dobro. Je to akási forma libertínskeho individualizmu, ktorá ohlasuje smrť štátu a spontánny socializmus malých osvietenských skupín. V novom svete pastora Godwina nie je priestor problémy práce, výroby, či výmeny. Na regeneráciu spoločnosti je však nutné zrušiť súkromné vlastníctvo, pretože je podľa neho prameňom nerovnosti, egoizmu a odcudzenia. Wikipedia  

✵ 3. marec 1756 – 7. apríl 1836
William Godwin fotka
William Godwin: 36   citátov 0   Páči sa

William Godwin: Citáty v angličtine

“It has an unhappy effect upon the human understanding and temper, for a man to be compelled in his gravest investigation of an argument, to consider, not what is true, but what is convenient.”

Kontext: It has an unhappy effect upon the human understanding and temper, for a man to be compelled in his gravest investigation of an argument, to consider, not what is true, but what is convenient. The lawyer never yet existed who has not boldly urged an objection which he knew to be fallacious, or endeavoured to pass off a weak reason for a strong one. Intellect is the greatest and most sacred of all endowments; and no man ever trifled with it, defending an action to-day which he had arraigned yesterday, or extenuating an offence on one occasion, which, soon after, he painted in the most atrocious colours, with absolute impunity. Above all, the poet, whose judgment should be clear, whose feelings should be uniform and sound, whose sense should be alive to every impression and hardened to none, who is the legislator of generations and the moral instructor of the world, ought never to have been a practising lawyer, or ought speedily to have quitted so dangerous an engagement.

The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer vol. 1, p. 370 (1803)

“Mind modifies body involuntarily.”

Vol. 2, bk. 8, ch. 7
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)
Kontext: Let us here return to the sublime conjecture of Franklin, that “mind will one day become omnipotent over matter.” If over all other matter, why not over the matter of our own bodies? If over matter at ever so great a distance, why not over matter which, however ignorant we may be of the tie that connects it with the thinking principle, we always carry about with us, and which is in all cases the medium of communication between that principle and the external universe? In a word, why may not man be one day immortal?
The different cases in which thought modifies the external universe are obvious to all. It is modified by our voluntary thoughts or design. We desire to stretch out our hand, and it is stretched out. We perform a thousand operations of the same species every day, and their familiarity annihilates the wonder. They are not in themselves less wonderful than any of those modifications which we are least accustomed to conceive. — Mind modifies body involuntarily.

“Above all, the poet, whose judgment should be clear, whose feelings should be uniform and sound, whose sense should be alive to every impression and hardened to none, who is the legislator of generations and the moral instructor of the world, ought never to have been a practising lawyer, or ought speedily to have quitted so dangerous an engagement.”

The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer vol. 1, p. 370 (1803)
Kontext: It has an unhappy effect upon the human understanding and temper, for a man to be compelled in his gravest investigation of an argument, to consider, not what is true, but what is convenient. The lawyer never yet existed who has not boldly urged an objection which he knew to be fallacious, or endeavoured to pass off a weak reason for a strong one. Intellect is the greatest and most sacred of all endowments; and no man ever trifled with it, defending an action to-day which he had arraigned yesterday, or extenuating an offence on one occasion, which, soon after, he painted in the most atrocious colours, with absolute impunity. Above all, the poet, whose judgment should be clear, whose feelings should be uniform and sound, whose sense should be alive to every impression and hardened to none, who is the legislator of generations and the moral instructor of the world, ought never to have been a practising lawyer, or ought speedily to have quitted so dangerous an engagement.

“Government was intended to suppress injustice, but its effect has been to embody and perpetuate it.”

"Summary of Principles" 2.7
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)
Varianta: Government was intended to suppress injustice, but it offers new occasions and temptations for the commission of it.

“If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.”

Vol. 1, bk. 1, ch.4
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)

“Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.”

Vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)

“The pistol and dagger may as easily be made the auxiliaries of vice, as of virtue.”

Book IV, "Of Tyrannicide"
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)