Page:Philosophical Review Volume 12.djvu/469

No. 4.] work by so important a moralist as Shaftesbury should claim a good deal for its importance as a permanent contribution to Ethics. Dr. Rand says: "Although the philosophy of Shaftesbury is ... founded on stoicism, this Philosophical Regimen is a new and brilliant presentation of that moral system. The discourses of Epictetus were uttered, it is believed, extempore. They have popular form, but often lack in continuity of expression. The thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, on the other hand, were written down merely for personal use. They have the evidence of private honesty, but are stated in short paragraphs which are often obscure. The merits rather than the defects of these two works are combined in the Philosophical Regimen of Shaftesbury. ... The Greek slave, the Roman emperor, and the English nobleman must abide the three great exponents of stoicial philosophy."

To the present writer it seems that this statement involves a serious misapprehension, both as to the nature and importance of this work of Shaftesbury, and as to the true position of Shaftesbury himself in the development of modern ethics. There is no question, of course, that Shaftesbury was indebted for many of his ideas to the Greek moralists, but he was far too catholic in his general attitude toward the problems of ethics to learn from one school only. In the Philosophical Regimen (with its thirty-four brief chapters, on such subjects as "Natural Affection," "Good and Ill," "Reputation," "Character," etc.), he was undoubtedly attempting to formulate principles for the conduct of life after the stoical method, even to the extent of closely imitating Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. But though the English nobleman may have aspired to become a reincarnation of the Greek sage, one does not have to read far in order to find that the present work is an imitation and not a creation. It is essentially exotic, and not an important continuation and development of stoicism. It is principally interesting because Shaftesbury wrote it, and not because it is a real contribution to ethics. One cannot at all agree with Dr. Rand, when he says that it "embodies a philosophy which must compel a renewed and critical study from the stoical standpoint of [the] Characteristics." These reflections upon the 'wisdom of life' throw very little light upon Shaftesbury's own system. Far from being a Greek philosopher born out of his time, he was perhaps the most modern moralist of his generation. He was the first English philosopher to develop clearly the view that human nature is a system, and that virtue consists in the harmony of the affections and in the development and realization of man's social and ideal self. Butler,