El tercer conde de Shaftesbury (1671-1713). Política, filosofía y bien común

Résumé

This dissertation follows the current historical academic context of recovery of the philosophical thought of Shaftesbury, an English thinker who, despite his proven relevance, was unjustly forgotten since the second half of the 18th century. Thus, it has been designed primarily as a contribution to its deserved restoration. The main requirement that has been assumed as inescapable to realize this objective and that has determined the methodology required to achieve it has been "completeness", i. e., that the reconstruction be not fragmented and disconnected of the significant historical background in which the author's thought arises, a condition that is modulated by his fundamental "political" self-understanding. According to this subjective point of view, the basic aim of this dissertation has been divided into four: (a) Reconstruction of the most relevant aspects of the English, British and European political life of the 17th and 18th centuries. (b) Reconstruction of Shaftesbury's life as the life of a politician in this context. (c) Presentation of the published work of Shaftesbury as a prominent chapter of his political biography. (d) Systematic exposition of Shaftesbury's thought as political philosophy. The four parts of the dissertation realize these four aims: Part I: reconstructs the English/British and European "political context" of the 17th and 18th centuries. It is written from the perspective of the life of the grandfather of the philosopher, the first Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-1683). It consists of two chapters. The first one sketches the political biography of this illustrious ancestor of Shaftesbury III and recapitulates through it the complex course of the major public events of the turbulent English 17th century. The second one traces out an outline of his "political universe", and explores and discusses relevant issues in order to shape his political identity. Part II: provides a biography of Shaftesbury III. It is ordered in a sequence of eight sections that emphasize the main episodes of his life. The most important of these are the fourth -that recounts his first period of public activity as member of the House of Commons-, the sixth, -which relates his political career in the House of Lords-, and the seventh, -which refers to his last biographic chapter consecrated to philosophical activities. Part III: carries on the previous parts depicting with some precision the face of Shaftesbury III as a whig politician. The exposition results in the presentation of the editing process of his philosophical work, Characteristicks (1711), as a deliberate political act in the service of the court whig party programs. Part IV: it is the core of the whole dissertation and undertakes a systematization of shaftesburean thought centered on the idea of public good, the nuclear of all Characteristicks and the one that allows us to characterize the author's philosophy as genuinely political. It begins with the study of the fundamentals of Shaftesbury's thought, i. e., with the outline of which may be termed his "systemic interpretation of reality", the conceptual frame and seat of his general conception of nature. Finally, according with the methodological suggestion of the Cambridge Platonist Richard Cumberland (1631-1718), it examines the meaning of the various notions of "good" inherent in the major systemic levels established by that metaphysical interpretation of reality (universal good, moral good and public or common good).