How did the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury connect taste with human nature?

The 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, was instrumental in establishing aesthetics and ethics as core philosophical inquiries by grounding them in human nature.1

As a naturalist, Shaftesbury argued that our sentiments are inherently ordered so that certain objects naturally please us and contribute to our well-being. He defined taste as a form of balanced discernment, allowing an individual to recognize elements that are congenial to their sentiments, thereby making them objects of pleasurable contemplation.1

This connection between taste and human nature is deeply linked to his moral philosophy. Shaftesbury proposed that humans possess a "moral sense"—a natural capacity for feelings like benevolence, sympathy, and gratitude—which creates a harmony between virtue and self-interest. By emphasizing the association of ideas, he bridged the gap between aesthetic contemplation and human action, suggesting that our capacity for beauty and our moral inclinations are both rooted in the fundamental structure of our sentiments.21