213SHAFTESBURY, ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, THIRD EARL OFbut only concerning actions. Roger
Williams, in the seventeenth century,
and Thomas Paine, in the eighteenth, also
articulated views akin to Jefferson’s. The
French political doctrine of laïcité
(or secularism) and the U.N.’s Universal
Declaration of Human Rights offer simi-
lar (though not identical) views of the
relationship between religion and politics.
Some contemporary political philoso-
phers, notably René Girard and Gianni
Vattimo, argue that while secularism has
its roots in modern political liberalism,
liberalism has its roots in Christianity,
leading to the ironic conclusion that the
separation of church and state is made
possible by the influence of a church on
the state. See also HOBBES and LOCKE.
SEVEN DEADLY SINS. The Seven
Deadly Sins are the capital vices in Chris-
tianity. They are listed in increasing incre-
ments of evil: (1) Lust (luxuria), excessive
thoughts and desires of a sexual nature,
(2) Gluttony (gula), the over-indulgence
in something, especially food, to the point
of waste, (3) Greed (avaritia), acquisition
of excessive wealth, (4) Sloth (acedia),
spiritual or physical apathy by discontent,
leading to failure to appreciate and act,
(5) Wrath (ira), uncontrolled feelings of
hatred and anger, (6) Envy (invidia), an
insatiable coveting of the goods of others,
and the wish to deprive them of their
goods, (7) Pride (superbia), an undue idea
of one’s own greatness and ability, inter-
fering with the individual’s recognition
of the grace of God. Pride is considered
the sin from which other sins arise.
This list of the seven was established by
Gregory the Great. The Seven Deadly Sins
were promoted through Dante’s Divine
Comedy, in which each wicked soul was
punished for his sin accordingly by con-
trapasso (symbolic, poetic justice).SEXTUS EMPIRICUS (c. 200 CE). Born
in Greece, he is among the best known of
the ancient Greco-Roman skeptics. He
developed arguments against both the
goodness of God and the intelligibility of
the concept of God. His skepticism of our
knowledge of the world was often struc-
tured on the basis of balancing counter-
arguments. An argument for X (whatever
it is) is only acceptable if there is not an
equally good argument for not-X. The
role of the skeptic is thus simply to pro-
vide good counter-arguments, and not to
directly show why some positive argu-
ments fail due to some internal logical
problems. His works include Outlines of
Pyrrhonism and Adversos Mathematicos
(against the Professors, or Dogmatists).SHAFTESBURY, ANTHONY ASHLEY
COOPER, THIRD EARL OF (1671–
1713). He defended a moral sense theory
of ethics, according to which our sense
of right and wrong as well as beauty and
ugliness is grounded in our sensibilities.
This school of thought, sometimes dis-
paraged as sentimentalist, provided a
rich account of values that, through an