A Philosophy of Beauty: Shaftesbury on Nature, Virtue, and Art

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An engaging account of how Shaftesbury revolutionized Western philosophy

At the turn of the eighteenth century, Anthony Ashley Cooper, the third Earl of Shaftesbury (16711713), developed the first comprehensive philosophy of beauty to be written in English. It revolutionized Western philosophy. In A Philosophy of Beauty, Michael Gill presents an engaging account of how Shaftesbury's thought profoundly shaped modern ideas of nature, religion, morality, and art-and why, despite its long neglect, it remains compelling today.

Before Shaftesbury's magnum opus, Charactersticks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711), it was common to see wilderness as ugly, to associate religion with fear and morality with unpleasant restriction, and to dismiss art as trivial or even corrupting. But Shaftesbury argued that nature, religion, virtue, and art can all be truly beautiful, and that cherishing and cultivating beauty is what makes life worth living. And, as Gill shows, this view had a huge impact on the development of natural religion, moral sense theory, aesthetics, and environmentalism.

Combining captivating historical details and flashes of humor, A Philosophy of Beauty not only rediscovers and illuminates a fascinating philosopher but also offers an inspiring reflection about the role beauty can play in our lives.

Reviews

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"
"Erudite and beautifully written. . . . Gill gives us a marvelous book that is engaging and thoughtful about what constitutes beauty and why we need it."---Lee Trepanier, The Russell Kirk Center
"[An] informative and entertaining book, A Philosophy of Beauty: Shaftesbury on Nature, Virtue, and Art. . . . is full of fresh and timely insights into Shaftesburys philosophy of beauty, and, with its sensitivity to modern issues and concerns, it serves as an apologia for the intrinsic value of the beautiful life."---Philip Trotter, Eighteenth-Century Studies

Author Bio

Michael B. Gill is professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Humean Moral Pluralism and The British Moralists on Human Nature and the Birth of Secular Ethics.