The Enlightenment's Fable: Bernard Mandeville and the Discovery of Society (Ideas in Context, Series Number 31)

The apprehension of society as an aggregation of self-interested individuals is a dominant modern concern, but one first systematically articulated during the Enlightenment. This book approaches this problem from the perspective of the challenge offered to inherited traditions of morality and social understanding by Bernard Mandeville, whose infamous paradoxical maxim "private vices, public benefits" profoundly disturbed his contemporaries, while his The Fable of the Bees had a decisive influence on David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant. Professor Hundert examines the sources and strategies of Mandeville's science of human nature and the role of his ideas in shaping eighteenth century economic, social and moral theories. The apprehension of society as an aggregation of self-interested individuals, connected to one another only by bonds of envy, competition and exploitation, is a dominant modern concern, but one first systematically articulated during the European Enlightenment. This book approaches this problem from the perspective of the challenge offered to inherited traditions of morality and social understanding by the Anglo-Dutch physician, satirist and philosopher, Bernard Mandeville. Mandeville's infamous paradoxical maxim "private vices, public benefits" profoundly disturbed his contemporaries, while his Fable of the Bees had decisive influence on David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant. Professor Hundert considers Mandeville's immersion in Epicurean natural philosophy, Dutch republicanism and Jansenist moral psychology to recover the sources and strategies of his science of human nature and the role of his ideas in shaping eighteenth century economic, social and moral theories.--Back cover The apprehension of society as an aggregation of self-interested individuals, connected only by bonds of envy, competition, and exploitation, is a dominant modern concern, but one first systematically articulated during the European Enlightenment. The Enlightenment's 'Fable' approaches this problem from the perspective of the challenge offered to inherited traditions of morality and social understanding by the Anglo-Dutch physician, satirist and philosopher, Bernard Mandeville. Mandeville's infamous paradoxical maxim 'private vices, public benefits' profoundly disturbed his contemporaries, while his Fable of the Bees had a decisive influence on David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant. Professor Hundert examines the sources and strategies of Mandeville's science of human nature and the role of his ideas in shaping eighteenth century economic, social and moral theories Acknowledgements A note on the text Introduction and agenda 1. The foundations of a project 2. Self-love and the civilizing process 3. Performance principles of the public sphere 4. A world of goods 5. Imposing closure - Adam Smith's problem Epilogue: The Fable's modern fate Bibliography Index. Ensayo sobre los cambios producidos en la sociedad europea en cuestiones relativas a sus tradicciones y costumbres E.j. Hundert. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 250-275) And Index.