An engaging account of how Shaftesbury revolutionized Western
philosophy At the turn of the eighteenth century, Anthony Ashley
Cooper, the third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), 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.
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