ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to show that Shaftesbury’s thinking about liberty is best understood in terms of self-mastery. To examine his understanding of liberty, I turn to a painting that he commissioned on the ancient theme of the choice of Hercules and the notes that he prepared for the artist. Questions of human choice are also present in the so-called story of an amour, which addresses the difficulties of controlling human passions. Jaffro distinguishes three notions of self-control that are present in the story of an amour. Although I agree with many aspects of Jaffro’s interpretation, I question his conclusion that self-control in the Stoic sense is best reserved for ‘moral heroes.’ I propose an alternative developmental interpretation, according to which all human beings are on an intellectual journey aimed at personal and moral improvement. My interpretation takes seriously that for Shaftesbury philosophy is meant to be practical and help improve our lives. I end by arguing that rather than trying to situate Shaftesbury’s concept of liberty within debates among compatibilists and incompatibilists it is more promising to understand it in terms of self-mastery and thus regard it as a version of positive liberty.

中文翻译：

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沙夫茨伯里论自由与自我掌控

摘要 本文的目的是表明沙夫茨伯里关于自由的思想最好从自我控制的角度来理解。为了检验他对自由的理解，我转向他委托创作的一幅画，主题是选择赫拉克勒斯的古老主题，以及他为艺术家准备的笔记。人类选择的问题也出现在所谓的恋爱故事中，它解决了控制人类激情的困难。Jaffro 区分了恋情故事中出现的三种自我控制概念。尽管我同意 Jaffro 解释的许多方面，但我质疑他的结论，即斯多葛主义意义上的自我控制最好留给“道德英雄”。我提出了另一种发展解释，据此，所有人类都处于旨在提高个人和道德水平的智力之旅。我的解释是认真对待沙夫茨伯里哲学是实用的，有助于改善我们的生活。最后我认为，与其试图将沙夫茨伯里的自由概念置于相容论者和不相容论者之间的辩论中，不如从自我控制的角度来理解它，从而将其视为积极自由的一种版本。