A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of (1671-1713). -- Philosopher, b. in London, grandson of the 1st Earl, the eminent statesman, the "Achitophel" of Dryden. After a private education under the supervision of Locke, and a short experience of Winchester School, he travelled much on the Continent. On succeeding to the earldom in 1699 he took a prominent part in the debates of the House of Lords, but devoted himself mainly to philosophical and literary pursuits. His coll. writings were pub. in 1711 under the title of Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times. In his philosophy he maintains, as against Hobbes, the existence of a moral sense, a view subsequently developed by the Scottish school of philosophy. The style of S. is stately and sonorous but laboured. He d. at Naples, whither he had gone in search of health, at the early age of 42. Though his writings are directed strongly against Atheism, they have been held to be hostile to a belief in revelation.