Michael B. Gill, "A Philosophy of Beauty: Shaftesbury on Nature, Virtue, and Art" (Princeton UP, 2022)
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What is the central focus of Michael Gill’s new book on Shaftesbury’s philosophy of beauty?
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Hello, and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figdor, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. I'm co-host of the channel along with Robert Talese, Sarah Tyson, and Malcolm Keating. Together, we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books in a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Michael Gill, professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. His new book, A Philosophy of Beauty, Shaftesbury on Nature, Virtue, and Art, is just out from Princeton University Press. The third Earl of Shaftesbury was a troubled soul, negative, misanthropic, and deeply troubled by his negativity and misanthropy.
In his book, Michael Gill shows how Shaftesbury's efforts to work on himself resulted in his becoming one of the first philosophers writing in English to develop an aesthetic theory. Shaftesbury conceived of beauty as order or harmony exemplified by wild nature, just as it is created by God. In sharp contrast to the prevailing 17th century European view that nature was sinful and needed to be altered for human purposes, before it could be aesthetically valuable. Gill explains how Shaftesbury argued for seeing our lives as works of art and shows how he responded to critics who claimed that admiring beauty was something that only rich lords like himself could afford to do. Instead, Shaftesbury claimed, even the lowly mechanic is inherently invested in good craftsmanship and in making himself a good person.
Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Michael Gill. Welcome to New Books and Philosophy.
Thanks very much for having me.
I'm looking forward to our conversation about A Philosophy of Beauty, Shaftesbury on Nature, Virtue and Art, which is just out from Princeton University Press. Before we get to talking about Shaftesbury and his philosophy of beauty, tell us a bit about yourself. I mean, your own philosophical background and your interests and how you came to write this book.
Thanks. Well, I didn't get into philosophy by design. I knew enough about philosophy when I went to university because I had an older brother who was a philosophy major to take a couple of courses, but I had no plans to become a philosophy major. The thing that got me into it really was that I hated to be bored in my classes. I hated to be in a class where the lectures just went on and on and I just found myself bored. And so I really chose classes almost entirely based on which ones I thought I wouldn't be bored in. And after a semester or two, I found myself taking more and more philosophy classes. Those were the ones that were least boring, that were most exciting.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
What is the central focus of Michael Gill’s new book on Shaftesbury’s philosophy of beauty?
0:00–14:31
2
Why does Shaftesbury define beauty as harmony and order in nature rather than human‑made improvement?
14:31–24:31
3
How did Michael Gill’s personal journey and interests lead him to study Shaftesbury?
24:31–1:06:04
Speakers
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