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This new 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 created 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 executed to aid the reader's consideration of his reflections on virtue as a kind of rationally achieved harmony among the affections.
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.

“WE ARE now in an Age when LIBERTY is once again in its Ascendent. And we are our-selves the happy Nation, who not only enjoy it at home, but by our Greatness and Power give Life and Vigour to it abroad; and are the Head and Chief of the EUROPEANLeague, founded on this Common Cause. Nor can it, I presume, be justly fear’d that we shou’d lose this noble Ardour, or faint under the glorious Toil; tho, like antient GREECE, we shou’d for succeeding Ages be contending with a foreign Power, and endeavouring to reduce the Exorbitancy of a Grand Monarch. ’Tis with us at present, as with the Roman People in those early Days, when they wanted only repose from Arms to apply themselves to the Improvement of Arts and Studys. We shou’d, in this case, need no ambitious Monarch to be allur’d, by hope of Fame or secret views of Power, to give Pensions abroad, as well as at home, and purchase Flattery from every Profession and Science. We shou’d find a better Fund within ourselves; and might, without such Assistance, be able to excel, by our own Virtue and Emulation.”

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713) was the grandson of a founder and leader of the English Whigs, and was tutored by John Locke. Shaftesbury rote one of the most intellectually influential works in English of the eighteenth century, the Characteristicks. Widely regarded as the first exponent of the view that ethics derives from reason and “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.