Publisher's Synopsis
Die Miscellaneous Reflections sind keine vermischten Betrachtungen zu beliebigen Gegenstanden, sondern eine Art fortlaufender Kommentar zu den ubrigen Abhandlungen der Characteristicks. Unter der Maske eines Kritikers entwickelt Shaftesbury einige seiner zentralen Themen weiter und erortert, teils satirisch, seine eigene Rolle als Autor. Dem Interpreten, der die Characteristicks als ein zusammenhangendes Werkganzes verstehen will, liefern die Betrachtungen unentbehrliches Material. Shaftesbury's Miscellaneous Reflections is by no means a melange of thoughts on randomly picked subjects: it stands in a sense as Shaftesbury's running commentary on the five other treatises assembled to form his Characteristicks. In the guise of a detached critic, he picks up and expands on various of his central themes, discussing also, at times in satirical mode, his own role as an author. Readers approaching Characteristicks as a coherent, structured whole are provided in this text with a wealth of significant material.
