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Bernard Mandeville, or Bernard de Mandeville (; 15 November 1670 – 21 January 1733), was an Anglo-Dutch philosopher, political economist and satirist. Born in
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
, Netherlands, he lived most of his life in England and used English for most of his published works. He became famous for '' The Fable of the Bees''.


Life

Mandeville was born on 15 November 1670, at
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, where his father was a prominent physician of
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...
origin. On leaving the
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...
school at
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
he showed his ability by an ''Oratio scholastica de medicina'' (1685), and at Leiden University in 1689 he produced the thesis ''De brutorum operationibus'', in which he advocated the Cartesian theory of automatism among animals. In 1691 he took his medical degree, pronouncing an inaugural disputation, ''De chylosi vitiata''. He moved to England to learn the language, and succeeded so remarkably that many refused to believe he was a foreigner. His father had been banished from Rotterdam in 1693 for involvement in the Costerman tax riots on 5 October 1690; Bernard himself may well have been involved.The Literary Encyclopedia
/ref> As a physician Mandeville was well respected and his literary works were successful as well. His conversational abilities won him the friendship of
Lord Macclesfield Earl of Macclesfield is a title that has been created twice. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1679 in favour of the soldier and politician Charles Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard. He had already been created Baron Gerard, of Bran ...
(chief justice 1710–1718), who introduced him to
Joseph Addison Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard ...
, described by Mandeville as "a parson in a tye-wig." He died of
influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...
on 21 January 1733 at Hackney, aged 62. There is a surviving image of Mandeville but many details of his life still have to be researched. Although the name Mandeville attests a French
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...
origin, his ancestors had lived in the Netherlands since at least the 16th century.


Works


''Fable of the Bees''

In 1705 he published a poem under the title ''The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves Turn'd Honest'' (two hundred doggerel couplets). In ''The Grumbling Hive'' Mandeville describes a bee community thriving until the bees are suddenly made honest and virtuous. Without their desire for personal gain their economy collapses and the remaining bees go to live simple lives in a hollow tree, thus implying that without private vices there exists no public benefit. In 1714 the poem was republished as an integral part of the ''Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Public Benefits'', consisting of a prose commentary, called ''Remarks'', and an essay, ''An Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue''. The book was primarily written as a political satire on the state of England in 1705, when the
Tories A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...
were accusing
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reign ...
, and the ministry of advocating the
War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phili ...
for personal reasons. In 1723 a later edition appeared, including ''An Essay on Charity and Charity Schools'', and ''A Search into the Nature of Society''. The former essay criticised the charity schools, designed to educate the poor and, in doing so, instil virtue in them. Mandeville disagreed with the idea that education adds virtue because he did not believe that evil desires existed only in the poor, but rather he saw the educated and wealthy as much more crafty. Mandeville also believed that educating the poor increased their desires for material things, defeating the purpose of the school and making it more difficult to provide for them.The Fable of the Bees, 5 edn, London, 1728, remarks, pp. 212–213, 328, quoted in Marx 1990
867 __NOTOC__ Year 867 (Roman numerals, DCCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 23 – Emperor Michael III is murde ...
Capital Vol. 1, Chapter 25, The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation, p. 765, Penguin Classics.
It was vigorously combatted by, among others, Bishop Berkeley and
William Law William Law (16869 April 1761) was a Church of England priest who lost his position at Emmanuel College, Cambridge when his conscience would not allow him to take the required oath of allegiance to the first Hanoverian monarch, King George I. P ...
, author of ''The Serious Call'', and in 1729 was made the subject of a prosecution for its immoral tendency.


Ideas

Mandeville's philosophy gave great offence at the time, and has always been stigmatised as false, cynical and degrading. His main thesis is that the actions of men cannot be divided into lower and higher. The higher life of man is a mere fiction introduced by philosophers and rulers to simplify government and the relations of society. In fact,
virtue Virtue ( la, virtus) is morality, moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is Value (ethics), valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that sh ...
(which he defined as "every performance by which man, contrary to the impulse of nature, should endeavour the benefit of others, or the conquest of his own passions, out of a
rational Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reasons. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an abil ...
ambition of being good") is actually detrimental to the
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...
in its commercial and intellectual progress. This is because it is the
vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or Habit (psychology), habit generally considered immorality, immoral, sinful, crime, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refe ...
s (i.e., the self-regarding actions of men) which alone, by means of inventions and the circulation of
capital (economics) In economics, capital goods or capital are "those durable produced goods that are in turn used as productive inputs for further production" of goods and services. At the macroeconomic level, "the nation's capital stock includes buildings, e ...
in connection with luxurious living, stimulate society into action and progress.


Private vice, public benefit

Mandeville concluded that vice, at variance with the "Christian virtues" of his time, was a necessary condition for economic prosperity. His viewpoint is more severe when juxtaposed to Adam Smith's. Both Smith and Mandeville believed that individuals' collective actions bring about a public benefit. However, what sets his philosophy apart from Smith's is his catalyst to that public benefit. Smith believed in a virtuous self-interest which results in invisible co-operation. For the most part, Smith saw no need for a guide to garner that public benefit. On the other hand, Mandeville believed it was vicious greed which led to invisible co-operation if properly channelled. Mandeville's qualification of proper channelling further parts his philosophy from Smith's ''
laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...
'' attitude. Essentially, Mandeville called for politicians to ensure that the passions of man would result in a public benefit. It was his stated belief in the '' Fable of the Bees'' that "Private Vices by the dextrous Management of a skilful Politician may be turned into Publick Benefits". In the ''Fable'' he shows a society possessed of all the virtues "blest with content and honesty," falling into apathy and utterly paralysed. The absence of
self-love Self-love, defined as "love of self" or "regard for one's own happiness or advantage", has been conceptualized both as a basic human necessity and as a moral flaw, akin to vanity and selfishness, synonymous with amour-propre, conceitedness, ...
(cf. Hobbes) is the death of progress. The so-called higher virtues are mere hypocrisy, and arise from the selfish desire to be superior to the brutes. "The moral virtues are the political offspring which flattery begot upon pride." Similarly he arrives at the great
paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...
that "private vices are public benefits". Among other things, Mandeville argues that the basest and vilest behaviours produce positive economic effects. A
libertine A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour o ...
, for example, is a vicious character, and yet his spending will employ tailors, servants, perfumers, cooks, prostitutes. These persons, in turn, will employ bakers, carpenters, and the like. Therefore, the rapaciousness and violence of the base passions of the libertine benefit society in general. Similar satirical arguments were made by the Restoration and Augustan satirists. A famous example is Mandeville's ''Modest Defence of Publick Stews,'' which argued for the introduction of public, state-controlled
brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub p ...
s. The 1726 paper acknowledges women's interests and mentions e.g. the
clitoris The clitoris ( or ) is a female sex organ present in mammals, ostriches and a limited number of other animals. In humans, the visible portion – the glans – is at the front junction of the labia minora (inner lips), above the o ...
as the centre of female sexual pleasure.Eine Streitschrift…, Essay von Ursula Pia Jauch. Carl Hanser Verlag, München 2001.
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, ...
's 1729 satire '' A Modest Proposal'' is probably an allusion to Mandeville's title. Mandeville was an early describer of the
division of labour The division of labour is the separation of the tasks in any economic system or organisation so that participants may specialise (specialisation). Individuals, organizations, and nations are endowed with, or acquire specialised capabilities, an ...
, and Adam Smith makes use of some of his examples.


Influence

While the author probably had no intention of subverting
morality Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...
, his views of
human nature Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...
were seen by his critics as cynical and degraded. Another of his works, ''A Search into the Nature of Society'' (1723), appended to the later versions of the ''Fable'', also startled the public mind, which his last works, ''Free Thoughts on Religion'' (1720) and ''An Enquiry into the Origin of Honour and the Usefulness of Christianity'' (1732) did little to reassure. The work in which he approximates most nearly to modern views is his account of the origin of society. His ''
a priori ("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ex ...
'' theories should be compared with the
jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...
Henry Maine Sir Henry James Sumner Maine, (15 August 1822 – 3 February 1888), was a British Whig comparative jurist and historian. He is famous for the thesis outlined in his book '' Ancient Law'' that law and society developed "from status to contract ...
's historical inquiries (''Ancient Law''). He endeavours to show that all social laws are the crystallised results of selfish aggrandizement and protective alliances among the weak. Denying any form of moral sense or
conscience Conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience stands in contrast to elicited emotion or thought due to associations based on immediate sen ...
, he regards all the social virtues as evolved from the instinct for
self-preservation Self-preservation is a behavior or set of behaviors that ensures the survival of an organism. It is thought to be universal among all living organisms. For sentient organisms, pain and fear are integral parts of this mechanism. Pain motivates the i ...
, the give-and-take arrangements between the partners in a defensive and offensive alliance, and the feelings of pride and vanity artificially fed by politicians, as an antidote to dissension and chaos. Mandeville's ironic paradoxes are a criticism of the "amiable" idealism of Shaftesbury; their irony contrasts with the serious egoistic systems of Hobbes and Helvétius. Mandeville's ideas about society and politics were praised by
Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Hayek ...
, a proponent of
Austrian economics The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian school ...
, in his book '' Law, Legislation and Liberty''.See also But it was above all Keynes who put it back in the spotlight in his ''Essay on Malthus'' and in the ''General Theory''. Keynes considers Mandeville as a precursor of the foundation of his own theory of insufficient effective demand.
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
, in his seminal work Capital, praised Mandeville as "an honest man with a clear mind" for his conclusion that the wealth of society depended on the relative poverty of workers.


Bibliography

* ''
Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...
Dress'd, or a Collection of Fables writ in Familiar Verse'' (1704)
''Typhon: a Burlesque Poem'' (1704)
* ''The Planter's Charity'' (1704)
''The Virgin Unmasked'' (17091724
1731, 1742), a work in which the coarser side of his nature is prominent * ''A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions'' (1711, 1715, 1730 (the issue of 1730 was entitled ''A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Diseases'')) admired by Johnson (Mandeville here protests against speculative therapeutics, and advances fanciful theories of his own about animal spirits in connection with "stomachic ferment": he shows a knowledge of
Locke Locke may refer to: People *John Locke, English philosopher *Locke (given name) *Locke (surname), information about the surname and list of people Places in the United States *Locke, California, a town in Sacramento County *Locke, Indiana *Locke, ...
's methods, and an admiration for Sydenham) * '' The Fable of the Bees'' (1714
1724
* ''The Mischiefs that Ought Justly to be Apprehended from a Whig-Government'' (1714)
''Free Thoughts on Religion, the Church, and National Happiness'' (1720
1721, 1723, 1729) * ''A Modest Defence of Publick Stews'' (1724
1740)

''An Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn'' (1725)

''An Enquiry into the Origin of Honour, and the Usefulness of Christianity in War'' (1732)

''A Letter to Dion, occasioned by his book called Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher'' (1732)
Renatus Willemsen, Bernard Mandeville : een ondeugende denker?, Noordboek, 2022.Other works attributed, wrongly, to him are ''The World Unmasked'' (1736) and ''Zoologia medicinalis hibernica'' (1744).


See also

*
Fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular mor ...
* Physician writer


Notes


References

* . * in the appended "A Search into the Nature of Society." * , footnote to page 27, section I.ii.3 * This source cites: ** Hill, ''Boswell'', iii, 291–293; ** L. Stephen, ''English Thought in the Eighteenth Century''; ** Alexander Bain, ''Moral Science'', 593–598; ** Windelband, W., ''History of Ethics'' (English translation Tufts); ** J.M. Robertson, ''Pioneer Humanists'' (1907); ** P. Sakmann, ''Bernard de Mandeville und die Bienenfabel-Controverse'' (Freiburg i/Br., 1897), and compare articles
Ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ...


Further reading

* Gerold Blümle and Nils Goldschmidt: ''Ein Lob dem Laster.'' In: ''
Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. Histo ...
.'' 17 May 2010
sueddeutsche.de
. in
Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
* . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * * . * . *


External links

* * * *
Project Bernard Mandeville
– in Dutch, but with some English translations and many biographical details
Bernard Mandeville
– Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy {{DEFAULTSORT:Mandeville, Bernard 1670 births 1733 deaths 17th-century Dutch economists 17th-century Dutch philosophers 17th-century Dutch physicians 17th-century Dutch political philosophers 17th-century English male writers 17th-century English medical doctors 17th-century English philosophers 18th-century Dutch economists 18th-century Dutch philosophers 18th-century Dutch physicians 18th-century Dutch political philosophers 18th-century English male writers 18th-century English medical doctors 18th-century English non-fiction writers 18th-century English philosophers Classical economists Dutch male writers Dutch non-fiction writers Dutch satirists English economists English non-fiction writers English political philosophers English satirists Leiden University alumni Scientists from Rotterdam Writers from Rotterdam Male non-fiction writers