Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Anthony Ashley-Cooper 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury" - New World
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
| − | Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 3rd Early of Shaftesbury, was born in 1671. His grandfather (the 1st Earl) had supported Cromwell and, later, the Whig party. Shaftesbury was primarily raised by his grandfather, and would later become a member of the Whig party during his own political career. | + | Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 3rd Early of Shaftesbury, was born in 1671. His grandfather (the 1st Earl) had supported and served under Oliver Cromwell and, later, the Whig party. Shaftesbury was primarily raised by his grandfather, and would later become a member of the Whig party during his own political career. |
| − | The 1st Earl employed [[John Locke]], who acted as a physician in the Cooper household, to educate his grandson. Shaftesbury was greatly influenced by Locke, and later made a trip to Locke during his exhile in Holland. Yet this influence was | + | The 1st Earl employed [[John Locke]], who acted as a physician in the Cooper household, to educate his grandson. Shaftesbury was greatly influenced by Locke, and later made a trip to Locke during his exhile in Holland. Yet this influence was not always in the form of acceptance of ideas - indeed, Shaftesbury saw much of his philosophy as aimed against Locke's. Iis education, Shaftesbury was swayed by arguments from ancient stoicism and Platonic rationalism, which were often at odds with Locke's particular variety of empiricism and moral egoism. |
| − | Asthma (worsened by London's smog) forced Shaftesbury to end his political career at the age of 30, which marked the starting point of his philosophically most significant decade. Beginning with the ''Inquiry concerning Virtue or Merit'' of 1699, Shaftesbury published a series of works in a variety of styles, chiefly focusing on ethics, aesthetics, politics and theology. In 1711, he collected those works into a single volume entitled ''Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times.'' Two years later, his respiratory problems overcame came him. After his death, two further volumes of his work were published. | + | Asthma (worsened by London's smog) forced Shaftesbury to end his political career at the age of 30, which in turn marked the starting point of his philosophically most significant decade. Beginning with the ''Inquiry concerning Virtue or Merit'' of 1699, Shaftesbury published a series of works in a variety of styles, chiefly focusing on ethics, aesthetics, politics and theology. In 1711, he collected those works into a single volume entitled ''Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times.'' Two years later, his respiratory problems overcame came him. After his death, two further volumes of his work were published. |
| − | Shaftesbury's work was highly influential throughout the 18th century, helping shape the ethical thought of figures | + | Shaftesbury's work was highly influential throughout the 18th century, helping shape the ethical thought of figures no less central than [[Hume|David Hume]] and [[Kant|Immanuel Kant]]. |
==Philosophy== | ==Philosophy== | ||
| Line 19: | Line 19: | ||
===The Harmonious Universe=== | ===The Harmonious Universe=== | ||
| − | While Shaftesbury's chief object of inquiry, following Locke, is the nature of humans and the human mind, he insists that humans can only be understood with respect to their role in the larger systems of which they are a part. To reinforce this, he asks his readers to consider how well someone would fare in understanding the nature of a watch if he were unaware of its role as an instrument to measure time. | + | While Shaftesbury's chief object of inquiry, following Locke, is the nature of humans and the human mind, he insists that humans can only be understood with respect to their role in the larger systems of which they are a part. To reinforce this, he asks his readers to consider how well someone would fare in understanding the nature of a watch if he were unaware of its role as an instrument to measure time. Such a person might well understand the basic mechanical relations between the gears, springs and hands, yet would have lack any real sense of ''why'' the various parts were related as they were or why the watch as a whole existed in the first place. The analogy is meant to suggest that there is something fundamentally misguided in thinking that humans can be understood without taking their purpose into account. |
| − | Shaftesbury saw the universe as a harmonious system composed of sub-systems. The human species | + | Shaftesbury saw the universe as a harmonious system composed of sub-systems. The human species counts as one such sub-system, and each individual human is in turn a sub-system of the species. The goodness of any particular entity or subs-system is a function of how well it contributes to the larger systems of which it is a part. In other words, Shaftesbury's vision of the universe is thoroughly teleological (i.e. concerned with the purposes of entities). |
| − | + | Given this general outlook, it is unsurprising that Shaftesbury was a proponent of the so-called 'Argument from Design,' which infers the existence of an intelligent and powerful creator from the harmonious, complex and apparently purposive nature of the universe. Yet Shaftesbury presents the argument in a somewhat unusual light by comparing the systematicity of the universe with the systematicity of the succession of ideas in our minds. Our ideas do not follow one another haphazardly - rather, their occurrence is (often) in accordance logical principles. This order is explained by the fact that the mind is governed by a rational force (the mind's intelligence). If this explanation appears apt, Shaftesbury concludes, then an exactly parallel argument should be accepted for the existence of some intelligent, governing force in the universe. | |
===Moral Sentiment and Virtue=== | ===Moral Sentiment and Virtue=== | ||
| − | Shaftesbury saw the goodness of any entity or act as based in that things' contribution to its overall system, so that all creatures are capable of good actions. Yet he insists that something further is required for a creature's action to be virtuous: it must be done from a motive of goodness | + | Shaftesbury saw the goodness of any entity or act as based in that things' contribution to its overall system, so that all creatures are capable of good actions. Yet he insists that something further is required for a creature's action to be virtuous: it must be done from a motive of goodness (a claim that would later be central to Kant's moral philosophy). Shaftesbury further concluded that this motive requires the existence of a certain reflective mental power. |
| − | ===Attacks on Egoism=== | + | ===Attacks on Hedonism and Egoism=== |
| + | |||
| + | Hedonism is the philosophical position that, at root, the basic good to be sought is pleasure, and the basic bad is pain. Egoism is the position that all the reasons an agent has for acting derive from that agent's self-interest. Shaftesbury was strongly opposed to both positions. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Against hedonism, Shaftesbury first notes that we do not always regard people who possess pleasure as possessing any real ''good''. Someone might well derive tremendous pleasure from eating sweet things, yet we do not necessarily judge that such a person has attained anything good, no matter how intense his pleasure. Shaftesbury imagines that the hedonist might respond by reformulating her position so as to only countenance certain kinds of pleasures. The problem with such a response, he argues, is that it is effectively abandoning hedonism; whatever it is that distinguishes the good pleasures from those that are not good is ''itself'' the good, not the pleasure itself. | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 21:56, 27 September 2006
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (February 26, 1671 – February 4, 1713), was an English politician, philosopher and writer.
Biography
Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 3rd Early of Shaftesbury, was born in 1671. His grandfather (the 1st Earl) had supported and served under Oliver Cromwell and, later, the Whig party. Shaftesbury was primarily raised by his grandfather, and would later become a member of the Whig party during his own political career.
The 1st Earl employed John Locke, who acted as a physician in the Cooper household, to educate his grandson. Shaftesbury was greatly influenced by Locke, and later made a trip to Locke during his exhile in Holland. Yet this influence was not always in the form of acceptance of ideas - indeed, Shaftesbury saw much of his philosophy as aimed against Locke's. Iis education, Shaftesbury was swayed by arguments from ancient stoicism and Platonic rationalism, which were often at odds with Locke's particular variety of empiricism and moral egoism.
Asthma (worsened by London's smog) forced Shaftesbury to end his political career at the age of 30, which in turn marked the starting point of his philosophically most significant decade. Beginning with the Inquiry concerning Virtue or Merit of 1699, Shaftesbury published a series of works in a variety of styles, chiefly focusing on ethics, aesthetics, politics and theology. In 1711, he collected those works into a single volume entitled Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. Two years later, his respiratory problems overcame came him. After his death, two further volumes of his work were published.
Shaftesbury's work was highly influential throughout the 18th century, helping shape the ethical thought of figures no less central than David Hume and Immanuel Kant.
Philosophy
Shaftesbury's philosophy stems from a surprising variety of sources: Plato, the stoics, the Cambridge Platonists, and John Locke. In many ways more a rationalist than an empiricist, Shaftesbury is nevertheless marked as one of the founders of the (typically empiricist) view that our moral concepts and judgments are based on sentiment and feeling, as opposed to reason and rational intuition. While therefore being an innovative thinker, his overarching view of the universe, with its focus on harmony and insistence on the human-independence of beauty and goodness, harkens back to the vision laid out over two millenia earlier in Plato's Republic.
The Harmonious Universe
While Shaftesbury's chief object of inquiry, following Locke, is the nature of humans and the human mind, he insists that humans can only be understood with respect to their role in the larger systems of which they are a part. To reinforce this, he asks his readers to consider how well someone would fare in understanding the nature of a watch if he were unaware of its role as an instrument to measure time. Such a person might well understand the basic mechanical relations between the gears, springs and hands, yet would have lack any real sense of why the various parts were related as they were or why the watch as a whole existed in the first place. The analogy is meant to suggest that there is something fundamentally misguided in thinking that humans can be understood without taking their purpose into account.
Shaftesbury saw the universe as a harmonious system composed of sub-systems. The human species counts as one such sub-system, and each individual human is in turn a sub-system of the species. The goodness of any particular entity or subs-system is a function of how well it contributes to the larger systems of which it is a part. In other words, Shaftesbury's vision of the universe is thoroughly teleological (i.e. concerned with the purposes of entities).
Given this general outlook, it is unsurprising that Shaftesbury was a proponent of the so-called 'Argument from Design,' which infers the existence of an intelligent and powerful creator from the harmonious, complex and apparently purposive nature of the universe. Yet Shaftesbury presents the argument in a somewhat unusual light by comparing the systematicity of the universe with the systematicity of the succession of ideas in our minds. Our ideas do not follow one another haphazardly - rather, their occurrence is (often) in accordance logical principles. This order is explained by the fact that the mind is governed by a rational force (the mind's intelligence). If this explanation appears apt, Shaftesbury concludes, then an exactly parallel argument should be accepted for the existence of some intelligent, governing force in the universe.
Moral Sentiment and Virtue
Shaftesbury saw the goodness of any entity or act as based in that things' contribution to its overall system, so that all creatures are capable of good actions. Yet he insists that something further is required for a creature's action to be virtuous: it must be done from a motive of goodness (a claim that would later be central to Kant's moral philosophy). Shaftesbury further concluded that this motive requires the existence of a certain reflective mental power.
Attacks on Hedonism and Egoism
Hedonism is the philosophical position that, at root, the basic good to be sought is pleasure, and the basic bad is pain. Egoism is the position that all the reasons an agent has for acting derive from that agent's self-interest. Shaftesbury was strongly opposed to both positions.
Against hedonism, Shaftesbury first notes that we do not always regard people who possess pleasure as possessing any real good. Someone might well derive tremendous pleasure from eating sweet things, yet we do not necessarily judge that such a person has attained anything good, no matter how intense his pleasure. Shaftesbury imagines that the hedonist might respond by reformulating her position so as to only countenance certain kinds of pleasures. The problem with such a response, he argues, is that it is effectively abandoning hedonism; whatever it is that distinguishes the good pleasures from those that are not good is itself the good, not the pleasure itself.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Shaftesbury's Works
- Klein, Lawrence E. (ed.). 1999. Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- Rand, Benjamin (ed.). 1914. Second Characters or the Language of Forms by the Right Honourable Anthony, Early of Shaftesbury. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reprinted, New York: Greenwood Press, 1969.
- Rand, Benjamin (ed.). 1900. The Life, Unpublished Letters and Philosophical Regimen of Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1900. Reprinted, London: Thoemmes Continuum, 1994.
Recommended Work on Shaftesbury
- Grean, Stanley. 1967. Shaftesbury's Philosophy of Religion and Ethics. Athens: Ohio University Press.
- Voitle, Robert. 1984. The Third Earl of Shaftesbury 1671-1713. Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press.
- Yaffe, Gideon. 2002. "The Earl of Shaftesbury." In A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, Steven Nadler (ed.), Oxford, Blackwell, 425-436.
External links
| Preceded by: Anthony Ashley Cooper |
Earl of Shaftesbury |
Succeeded by: Anthony Ashley Cooper |
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