A problem that immediately arises for Shaftesbury’s account is the one posed by the “dazzling form” of a beautiful woman (1964 [1711]: 136). Here, beauty and sensual appeal, far from being antithetical, actually seem to go hand in hand. Still, Shaftesbury insists that the two kinds of pleasure are utterly distinct, even though, in this particular case, erotic pleasure may indeed follow in the wake of aesthetic pleasure. One could make a comparison, he writes, with someone who goes from contemplating the beauty of a tree to fantasizing about its tasty fruits. Both activities are pleasurable, but the pleasures involved are very different: one is a disinterested aesthetic pleasure, the other is a pleasure informed by our self-interest. It points to a sensual joy, based on an appetite that we have in common with animals, or “brutes” as Shaftesbury prefers to call them. The contemplation of beauty, by contrast, is unique to us rational beings. That’s because beauty is exclusively an object of the mind.