Some claim anarchist themes can be found in the works of Taoist sages Laozi[15] and Zhuangzi. The latter has been translated, "There has been such a thing as letting mankind alone; there has never been such a thing as governing mankind [with success]." and "A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a State."[16] Diogenes of Sinope and the Cynics and their contemporary, Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, also introduced similar topics.[15][17]
Modern anarchism, however, sprang from the secular or religious thought of the Enlightenment, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau's arguments for the moral centrality of freedom.[18] Although by the turn of the 19th century the term "anarchist" had an entirely positive connotation,[19] it first entered the English language in 1642 during the English Civil War as a term of abuse used by Royalists to damn those who were fomenting disorder.[19] By the time of the French Revolution some, such as the Enragés, began to use the term positively,[20][unreliable source?] in opposition to Jacobin centralisation of power, seeing "revolutionary government" as oxymoronic.[19] From this climate William Godwin developed what many consider the first expression of modern anarchist thought.[21] Godwin was, according to Peter Kropotkin, "the first to formulate the political and economical conceptions of anarchism, even though he did not give that name to the ideas developed in his work."[15][22] Godwin, a philosophical anarchist, opposed revolutionary action and saw a minimal state as a present "necessary evil"[23] that would become increasingly irrelevant and powerless by the gradual spread of knowledge.[21] Godwin advocated extreme individualism, proposing that all cooperation in labor be eliminated.[24] Godwin felt discrimination on any grounds besides ability was intolerable.
The first to describe himself as anarchist was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,[19] which led some to call him the founder of modern anarchist...