English philosopher (3rd Earl of Shaftesbury) who developed the moral sense — an innate natural capacity for distinguishing virtue from vice analogous to aesthetic taste — and identified virtue with natural affection and harmony.
Moral sense: virtue is not obedience to God's commands (Locke) but the natural exercise of affections in balance — we feel virtue's beauty directly. The natural order is good; optimistic naturalism against Hobbesian pessimism. Aesthetics and ethics are unified: the good, the beautiful, and the true are aspects of the same cosmic harmony.
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