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Lying with Godwin and Kant: Truth and Duty in St. Leon
- The Eighteenth Century
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Volume 55, Number 1, Spring 2014
- pp. 19-37
- 10.1353/ecy.2014.0012
- Article
- Additional Information
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This essay explores a curious philosophical parallel between William Godwin’s novel, St. Leon (1799), and Immanuel Kant’s brief essay “On a Supposed Right to Lie From Altruistic Motives” (1797). Drawing on the psychoanalytic philosophy of Alenka Zupančič, the essay argues that St. Leon is finally a philosophical fable on a person’s duty to speak the truth and, as such, exemplifies Godwin’s characteristic faith in honesty and sincerity as key components of political justice.