Characteristics Vol 2: Containing, An Inquiry Concerning Virtue And Merit; The Moralists, A Philosophical Rhapsody

by Anthony Ashley Cooper, J.M. Robertson (Creator)

Shaftesbury's Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times is a collection of treatises on interconnected themes in moral philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and politics. This is the first new edition of Characteristicks as a coherent collection for almost a century. A substantial Introduction discusses Shaftesbury's works and ideas in the context of his times, and traces the reception and influence of his writings through the eighteenth century and beyond.

442 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1711

About the author

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury was an English politician, philosopher and writer.

He was born at Exeter House in London, the son of the future Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury and his wife Lady Dorothy Manners, daughter of John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland. At the age of three he was made over to the formal guardianship of his grandfather Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury. John Locke, as medical attendant to the Ashley household, was entrusted with the supervision of his education.