Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times - Softcover

Cooper, A Ashley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865972958 ISBN 13: 9780865972957

Publisher: Liberty Fund Inc, 2001

Synopsis

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury designed to facilitate the reader's consideration of his meditations on the interrelationships among truth, goodness, beauty, virtue, liberty, responsibility, society, and the state.

The grandson of a founder and leader of the English Whigs, and tutored by John Locke, Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), wrote one of the most intellectually influential works in English of the eighteenth century. This was the three-volume Characteristicks, originally published in 1711, but revised in 1714 to accommodate the engravings of illustrations that Shaftesbury himself planned to aid the reader's consideration of his reflections on virtue as a kind of rationally achieved harmony among the affections.

Douglas Den Uyl is Vice President of Educational Programs for Liberty Fund.

About this title

Product Description:

This new edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Widely regarded as the first exponent of the view that ethics derives, not from reason alone, but from 'sentiment', Shaftesbury criticizes not only Locke but, especially, Hobbes for the dim view that 'the state of nature' is 'a war of all against all'. To the contrary, Shaftesbury argued that human nature responds most fully to representations of the good, the true, and the beautiful, and that human beings naturally desire society. In all of these reflections, he provides a large scope for the exercise of individual liberty and responsibility. The grandson of a founder and leader of the English Whigs, and tutored by John Locke, Anthony Ashley Cooper, was the Third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), and Characteristicks is regarded as one of the most intellectually influential works in English of the eighteenth century.

Review:

Characteristicks'predisposed to a certain framework or perspective. . . .The work's messages are perhaps multiple and not driven home with the same transparency of purpose and objective as writings of later times'. Foreign language extracts have been translated and inserted into the page. Otherwise, the book takes its recognisable eighteenth century form, a three-volume, illustrated set, including two late pieces on the plastic arts. Pagination of the sixth edition, which remained constant for much of the eighteenth century, is carefully noted, allowing readers to make use of Shaftesbury's own cross-references, index, and emblematic designs keyed to specific passages.

Why select the sixth instead of the second edition? Between 1711 and 1713, Shaftesbury designed and commissioned a series of frontispieces for each of the works compiled in Characteristicks. These marvelous engravings were included in the posthumous second edition. Shaftesbury placed increasing emphasis on the visual and plastic arts as he neared the end of his life, and used the frontispieces to highlight the continuity of arguments amidst a doctrinally diverse and formally amorphous collection. The page numbers etched into pedestals and frames functioned like a visual index. The Liberty Fund holds that Shaftesbury's aesthetic views offer a key to his entire philosophy. Their edition consequently reproduces the images with all the clarity and depth of the originals. . ."

Essays in Criticism
January 2004

About this edition

• Publisher: Liberty Fund Inc
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0865972958
• ISBN 13: 9780865972957
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 815