Influências estoicas em Shaftesbury: natureza e virtude

Abstract

Shaftesbury is generally remembered on account of his influence on otherBritish moralists of the 18th century, such as Francis Hutcheson and DavidHume. He is also considered as a precursor to romanticism. One aspect ofhis work which receives much less attention concerns his stoic influences.This paper aims at presenting an interpretation of the relation between na-ture and affections that takes into account not only the way Shaftesburytakes part, through his attempt to oppose Hobbesian theses on morality, inthe debate concerning the principles of morals which is characteristic of hisown time, but also the way in which he deals with the influence he sufferedfrom authors such as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. To this end, works asAn Enquiry concerning Virtue, or Merit and The Moralists shall be analyzedin the light of the relations they keep with the Askhmata, a work which wasnot intended for publication, in which the author’s stoic inspirations arequite explicit.