Inquiry Concerning Political Justice by William Godwin 1793 INQUIRY CONCERNING POLITICAL JUSTICE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON MODERN MORALS AND HAPPINESS BOOK I: OF THE POWERS OF MAN CONSIDERED IN HIS SOCIAL CAPACITY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The object proposed in the following work is an investigation concerning that form of public or political society, that system of intercourse and reciprocal action, extending beyond the bounds of a single family, which shall be found most to conduce to the general benefit. How may the peculiar and independent operation of each individual in the social state most effectually be preserved? How may the security each man ought to possess, as to his life, and the employment of his faculties according to the dictates of his own understanding, be most certainly defended from invasion? How may the indi...
BOOK VI Opinion as a Subject of Political Institution CHAPTER VII OF CONSTITUTIONS Distinction of regulations constituent and legislative. - Supposed character of permanence that ought to be given to the former - inconsist- ent with the nature of man. - Source of the error. - Remark. - Absurdity of the system of permanence. - Its futility. - Mode to be pursued in framing a constitution. - Constituent laws not more important than others. - In what manner the consent of the districts is to be de- clared. - Tendency of the principle which re- quires this consent. - It would reduce the number of constitutional articles - parcel out the legislative power - and produce the gradual extinction of law. - Objection. - answer. A QUESTION intimately connected with the political superintendence of opinion is presented to us relative to a doctrine which has lately been taught upon the subje...