born Feb. 26, 1671, London, Eng.
died Feb. 15, 1713, Naples
English politician and philosopher.
Grandson of the 1st earl of Shaftesbury , he received his early education from John Locke . He entered Parliament in 1695; succeeding to his title in 1699, he served three years in the House of Lords. His numerous philosophical essays were influenced by Neoplatonism ; published as Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711), they became the chief source of English Deism and influenced writers such as Alexander Pope , Samuel Taylor Coleridge , and Immanuel Kant .