Shaftesbury philosopher king

The Aptly Named ‘Cratylus’? Berkeley’s Approach to Shaftesbury in Alciphron, III

Research
Author
  • Stefan Storrie

Abstract

In Alciphron () Berkeley engages in extensive criticism of the Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury. Berkeley’s criticism of the Earl is remarkably aggressive. It culminates in §§ of the Third Dialogue, where Berkeley launches a vicious personal attack against Shaftesbury, under the name of ‘Cratylus’. In this way the third dialogue differs radically in tone from Berkeley’s other philosophical works and has been viewed with shock and derision. In this paper I will show that Berkeley names Shaftesbury ‘Cratylus’ because he wants to impute the kind of self-deception against the Earl that Plato vividly describes in the dialogue Cratylus. This, moreover, is the key to correctly understanding Berkeley’s argument against Shaftesbury’s moral theory, which is an attack on a pernicious form of moral subjectivism, rather than an attack on virtue ethics, as is commonly thought.

Keywords: George Berkeley, Anthony Ashley Cooper Third Earl of Shaftesbury, Plato, Stoicism, Morality, Scepticism, Moral Subjectivism

How to Cite:

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The Third Earl of Shaftesbury (—)

Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury () was an English philosopher who profoundly influenced 18th century thought in Britain, France, and Germany.  As a part of an important social circle of English Freethinkers along with early deists such as John Toland, Matthew Tindal, and Anthony Collins, Shaftesbury’s work had a significant influence on French deists such as Voltaire and Rousseau.  He also corresponded with some of the most important thinkers of his day, including Locke, Leibniz, and Bayle.  Shaftesbury was most influential in the history of English language philosophy through his concept of the moral sense which heavily influenced Hutcheson, Butler, Hume, and Adam Smith; and Shaftesbury was influential in Germany through his concept of enthusiasm which recovered (intuitive) reason from mere (discursive) reasoning and influenced the Romantic idea of the creative imagination as found in German thinkers such as Lessing, Mendelssohn, Goethe, Herder, and Schiller.

Although Shaftesbury was enormously influential in the 18th century, his prestige declined in the 20th century, primarily due to the rise of analytic philosop

Lord Shaftesbury [Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury]

1. Shaftesbury's Life and Works

Shaftesbury lived from to His grandfather, the first Earl of Shaftesbury, oversaw Shaftesbury's early upbringing and put John Locke in charge of his education. Shaftesbury would eventually come to disagree with many aspects of Locke's philosophy (such as the latter's anti-innatist empiricism, his social contract theory, and what Shaftesbury perceived to be his egoism), but Locke was clearly a crucially important influence on Shaftesbury's philosophical development, and the two remained friends until Locke's death.

Shaftesbury served in Parliament and the House of Lords, but ill health curtailed his political career when he was 30 years old. From then on, he concentrated his energies on his philosophical and literary writings.

The first work Shaftesbury published was an edited collection of sermons by Benjamin Whichcote, which came out in Shaftesbury wrote an unsigned preface to the sermons in which he praised Whichcote's belief in the goodness of human beings and urged his readers to use Whichcote's “good nature” as an antidote to the poisonous egoism of Hobbes an

Anthony Shaftesbury

English philosopher and writer.
Date of Birth:
Country: Great Britain

Content:
  1. Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
  2. Political Involvement and Philosophical Inquiries
  3. The House of Lords and Political Withdrawal
  4. The Enlightenment and the "Moral Sense"
  5. The "Ridicule Test" and "Characteristicks"
  6. The Arts and Italy
  7. Death and Legacy

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

Early Life and Education

Anthony Ashley Cooper was born in London on February 26, , into a politically influential family. As the grandson of the famous Lord Chancellor during Charles II's reign, he received a privileged upbringing. Under the tutelage of renowned philosopher John Locke, Cooper's home education laid the foundation for his future intellectual pursuits. He later attended Winchester College.

Political Involvement and Philosophical Inquiries

In , Cooper entered the House of Commons as a Whig MP for Poole. However, health issues forced him to resign and dedicate himself primarily to philosophy. He spent a year in Rotterdam, where he befriended influential intellectuals such as Jean LeClerc, Pierre Bayle, and Franciscus van Limborch.

The

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