The Aesthetic Mind: Stoic Influences on Shaftesbury’s Theory of Beauty

The essay reconsiders some scattered and minor aspects of Lord Shaftesbury's thought which allow to shed light also on major and more investigated topics of his philosophy. The main purpose is to show how Stoicism has exerted a strong influence on Shaftesbury's aesthetics, no less than on its ethics - regarding which that influence is notoriously more ascertained, or at least more debated. The purpose of this paper is therefore to highlight how much stoicism influences Shaftesbury's aesthetics; to show how stoic elements in Shaftesbury mainly refer to the concept of "mind"; 3. to show how a clarification regarding the nature of the concept of mind and its meaning in 18th century helps to better understand the single aspects of Shaftesbury's aesthetic theories.