Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury [ Philosophy / Art and Literature / Aristocracy ]
… to transform British society both ethically and politically. Against the self-interested individual theorized by Thomas Hobbes and Locke, Shaftesbury insisted on intrinsic human sociability: 'If Eating and Drinking be natural, Herding is so … philosophical introspection. For the Earl, this mistakenly self-interested understanding of 'virtue' linked Locke and Hobbes to High Church Anglican Tories. Appeals to the fear of God’s punishment led, Shaftesbury claimed, to a distortion … of intellectual oppression and social unrest. Although Shaftesbury was not as outspoken in his criticism of Thomas Hobbes's moral philosophy as secondary literature often makes us believe, his rejection of the Sage of Malmesbury's moral …
Affection | Catholicism | Cosmopolitanism | Enlightenment | Manners | Politeness | Whigs | Wit
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