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 Neoplatonism ; published as Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711), they became the chief source of English Deism and influenced writers such as {{link=Pope, Alexander">Alexander Pope , Samuel Taylor Coleridge , and Immanuel Kant .