Justice: The Part and the Whole

Godwin agreed with the libertarian individualists that investigation must factor down: only the atom can experience utility or reveal an authentic preference. At the same time Godwin was a collectivist in the tradition of the canonical Greeks: the individual has rights only because he is integrated into an embedding social organism with rules to which he must conform. At birth the mind is largely a blank sheet of paper in the sense of Locke: conduct is learned through experience. The chapter draws attention to the duality in Godwin’s thought: the part is unique but so is the whole. Godwin’s political anarchism is only possible because of social pressures that deprive the entrepreneur of much of his freedom to innovate. Godwin treats the ‘public eye’ and the ‘real’ and the ‘impartial spectator’ as a positive externality without which economic activity would not be possible. Self-love and altruism will ultimately merge, although in the short run the state will be needed.