Shaftesbury’s Dictionary of Terms of Art

This article discusses Shaftesbury’s fragmentary ‘Dictionary of art terms’, an appendix to the unfinished Plastics, and its relevance in establishing an aesthetic and moral art theory in Britain. The article argues that, although the ‘Dictionary’ is rudimentary, it already reveals enough information to assess it as an important document of English art philosophy. Given that Shaftesbury’s dictionary project was the first English attempt to produce a theoretical art dictionary, it is discussed in the light of traditions of the art dictionary in this country. The study clarifies notions of the dictionary’s art terms through comparative analyses with the use of the words in the aesthetic discourses in the Plastics. It looks at Shaftesbury’s creation of novel words based on classical literature and his use of contemporary literary sources which was partly ambivalent, for fear that only words were transferred from their original context but no ideologies that the author disapproved of. With the help of exemplary discussions of Shaftesbury’s art vocabulary, the study illustrates the shaping of an aesthetic vocabulary in England.