Article ID: CBB892524347

Bernard Mandeville as Moralist and Materialist (2015)

unapi

Today remembered primarily as an eighteenth-century predecessor of laissez-faire economics, Bernard Mandeville's notorious Fable of the Bees marks the intersection of two modes of thought. On the one hand, Mandeville was a ‘moralist’ heir to the French Augustinianism of the previous century, viewing sociability as a mere mask for vanity and pride. On the other, he was a ‘materialist’ forerunner of economics, concerned to demonstrate the universality of human appetites for corporeal pleasures. The tension between these two modes of thought results in ambivalences and contradictions—concerning the relative power of norms and interests, the relationship between motives and behaviours, and the historical variability of human cultures—that run throughout the Fable. Both traditions, with their attendant difficulties, have a long afterlife in the later history of the social sciences; understanding their origins in Mandeville's thought can help us get a firmer grip on problems that still trouble us today.

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Authors & Contributors
Berenson, Edward
Sukhoterina, Lyubov
Arnold, Alexander Lee
Brian Phillips Murphy
Lisa Broussois
Geroulanos, Stefanos
Concepts
Economics
Political economy
Social sciences
Moral philosophy
Physiocrats (economists)
Science and society
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
20th century
Modern
Enlightenment
Places
Great Britain
France
Atlantic world
Atlantic Ocean
England
Ukraine
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