From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our - Chris J. Young

38. William Godwin (1756–1836). An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.
London: Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1793.
Dubbed the founder of English philosophical anarchism, William Godwin is best known as the
author of this treatise. Published during the French Revolution, the text established Godwin as a
champion of individual liberty, who asserted the individual’s right to form his or her own judgment
without fear of suppression by Government or other external forces:
Above all, we should not forget that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the
private judgement and individual conscience of mankind; and that, however we may
be obliged to admit it as a necessary evil for the present, it behoves us, as the friends
of reason and the human species, to admit as little of it as possible, and carefully to
observe whether, in consequence of the gradual illumination of the human mind, that
little may not hereafter be diminished.
in acknowledging that government is a necessary evil, Godwin asserted that the right of individuals
to self-expression was only possible in a perfect society based on minimal government intervention
and cooperation. The abolition of marriage, religion, and private property were steps towards a
realistic solution to society’s social and political issues.
39. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834). An Essay on the Principle of
Population. London: J. Johnson, 1798.
William Hazlitt (1778–1830). A Reply to the Essay on Population. London:
Arliss & Huntsman, 1807.
After the French Revolution, warnings of the inevitable failure of all forms of utopian societies took
their cue from Thomas Robert Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle of Population. First published in
1798, Malthus’s central premise was that any society, however ideal, would inevitably be faced with
overpopulation, leading to the social ills of poverty, hunger, disease, and war. Malthus’s arguments
were perhaps the greatest critiques of the utopian ideals. An Essay on the Principle of Population was
such a heavy blow to utopian visions that it could arguably have been the foundation of many of
the later nineteenth-century and twentieth-century dystopias that emphasized the failure of utopias
despite their good intentions, and their replacement by dystopian nightmares. Malthus’s views
were deeply shocking to many in Britain, including William Hazlitt who published a collection
of letters directed against Malthus’s thesis that any idealistically constructed society is doomed to
overpopulation, and is, therefore, susceptible to the ills of dystopias.
56 Case Five & Six: Exploring Nowhere