Mandeville, Bernard de

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  name             = Bernard de Mandeville|
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name       = Bernard de Mandeville|
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  birth           = [[January 19]], [[1670]] ([[Rotterdam]] in the [[Netherlands]]) |
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birth     = January 19, 1670 (Rotterdam in the [[Netherlands]]) |
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  death           = [[1733]] |
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death     = 1733 |
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  school_tradition = [[Classical economics]] |
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school_tradition = [[Classical economics]] |
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  main_interests   = [[Political philosophy]], [[ethics]], [[economics]] |
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main_interests = [[Political philosophy]], [[ethics]], [[economics]] |
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  influences       = [[William Petty]]|
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influences   = William Petty|
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  influenced       = [[Adam Smith]]|
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influenced   = [[Adam Smith]]|
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  notable_ideas   = the unknowing cooperation of individuals, modern [[free market]], [[division of labour]] |
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notable_ideas = the unknowing cooperation of individuals, modern [[free market]], [[division of labour]] |
 
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'''Bernard de Mandeville''' (1670 &ndash; 1733), was a [[philosopher]], political [[economist]] and [[satirist]]. Born in the [[Netherlands]], he lived most of his life in [[England]] and wrote most of his works in [[English language|English]].
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He was known for ''The Fable of the Bees'' (1714), which was first published as a 433-line poem in 1705; by the sixth edition of 1729 it had become a treatise. Mandeville depicted a hive full of bees, each going about its business in its own way, and suggested that vice and fraud were as much a part of their success as industry and [[virtue]]. All of these, he said, are necessary for a market-based society to flourish; vice and greed are among the qualities of the egoistic individuals who make up such a society. Mandeville examined the way in which private vices, such as vanity, luxury, and the desire for material possessions and fashion, benefit the public by creating a market for commercial and industrial products. The book was remarkably witty and appealing, and it sparked considerable discussion among moralists and economists. [[Berkeley]] and [[Hutcheson]] spoke out against its sarcastic and cynical implications, but its ideas influenced [[Adam Smith]] and anticipated the doctrine of conspicuous consumption later promulgated by the American economist and sociologist, [[Thorsten Veblen]].
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== Life ==
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Bernard de Mandeville was born in 1670, at or near Rotterdam in the [[Netherlands]], where his father practiced as a [[physician]]. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but he was baptized on November 20, 1670. On leaving the [[Erasmus]] school at [[Rotterdam]], he showed his ability in an ''Oratio scholastica de medicina'' (1685), and at Leiden University in 1689, he produced a thesis ''De brutorum operationibus,'' in which he advocated the [[Descartes|Cartesian]] theory of [[automatism]] among animals. In 1691 he took his medical degree, giving as his inaugural disputation, a thesis entitled, ''De chylosi vitiate.'' He moved to England to learn the language and succeeded so well that many refused to believe he was a foreigner. His father had been banished from Rotterdam in 1690 for involvement in the [[Costerman tax riots]]; this may have been one reason for Mandeville’s decision to move to England.
  
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'''Bernard de Mandeville''' ([[1670]] &ndash; [[1733]]), was a [[philosopher]], political economist and [[satirist]]. Born in the Netherlands, he lived most of his life in England and used English for most of his published works.  He was famous (or infamous) for ''[[The Fable of the Bees]]''.
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Mandeville settled in London, and in 1699 married an Englishwoman, with whom he had two children. As a physician he was well respected, and his literary works brought in a good income. His conversational abilities won him the friendship of Lord Macclesfield (Chief Justice, 1710-1718) who introduced him to [[Joseph Addison]], described by Mandeville as "a parson in a tye-wig." Mandeville’s first literary works in English were burlesque paraphrases from the seventeenth century French [[poet]], Jean de La Fontaine, and the seventeenth century French writer Paul Scarron. Mandeville died of [[influenza]] on January 21, 1733, at Hackney.
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== Works and Thought ==
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=== ''Fable of the Bees'' ===
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In 1705 he published a poem of two hundred doggerel couplets under the title ''The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves Turn'd Honest.'' In 1714 this poem was republished as an integral part of the ''Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits,'' consisting of a prose commentary, called ''Remarks,'' and an essay, ''An Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue.'' In 1723 a later edition appeared, including ''An Essay on Charity and Charity Schools,'' and ''A Search into the Nature of Society.'' It was vigorously attacked by, among others, Bishop Berkeley and William Law, author of ''The Serious Call,'' and in 1729 was made the subject of a prosecution for its “immoral tendencies.”
  
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==Life==
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The book was primarily written as a political [[satire]] on the state of England in 1705, when the [[Tory|Tories]] were accusing John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and the ministry of advocating the Trench War for personal reasons. The edition of 1723 was represented as a nuisance by the Grand Jury of Middlesex, denounced in the ''London Journal'' by Theophilus Philo-Britannus, and attacked by many writers. The most notable of these was Archibald Campbell (1691-1756), in his ''Aretelogia'' (published as his own by Alexander Innes in 1728; afterward by Campbell, under his own name, in 1733, as ''Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue''). The ''Fable'' was reprinted in 1729, a ninth edition appeared in 1755, and it has often been reprinted in more recent times. Berkeley attacked the book in the second dialogue of the ''Alciphron'' (1732) and John Brown criticized it in his ''Essay upon Shaftesbury's Characteristics'' (1751).
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He was born in 1670, at or near [[Rotterdam]] in the [[Netherlands]], where his father practised as a [[physician]]. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but he was baptised on [[November 20]], [[1670]].<ref>http://[www.bernard-mandeville.nl|Project Bernard Mandeville]</ref>  On leaving the [[Erasmus]] school at [[Rotterdam]] he showed his ability by an ''Oratio scholastica de medicina'' (1685), and at [[Leiden University]] in 1689 he produced a 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 came to England to learn the language<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-9312335] Britannica Student Encyclopedia</ref>, and succeeded so remarkably that many refused to believe he was a foreigner. His father had been banished from Rotterdam in 1690 for involvement in the [[Costerman tax riots]]; Bernard himself may well have been involved.<ref>[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4974 The Literary Encyclopedia]</ref>
 
  
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As a physician he was well respected and his literary works paid off very well. His conversational abilities won him the friendship of [[Lord Macclesfield]] (chief justice 1710-1718) who introduced him to [[Joseph Addison]], described by Mandeville as "a parson in a tye-wig." He died of [[influenza]] on [[January 21]] [[1733]] at [[London Borough of Hackney|Hackney]].
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=== Philosophy ===
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Mandeville's philosophy gave great offense at the time, and has always been stigmatized as false, cynical and degrading. His main thesis is that the actions of men cannot be divided into lower and higher. The concept of a “higher life” of man is a mere fiction introduced by philosophers and rulers to simplify [[government]] and the relations within society. In fact, [[virtue]] (which he defined as "every performance by which man, contrary to the impulse of nature, should endeavor the benefit of others, or the conquest of his own passions, out of a [[rational]] ambition of being good") is actually detrimental to the commercial and intellectual progress of the [[state]]. It is the [[vice]]s (the self-regarding actions of men) which, by means of inventions and the circulation of [[capital]] in connection with luxurious living, stimulate society into action and progress.
  
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There is no surviving picture of Mandeville and many details of his life are obscure. The name Mandeville suggests a French origin, but his ancestors had lived in the Netherlands since at least the [[16th century]].<ref>[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4974 The Literary Encyclopedia]</ref> There is no known connection between him and the [[14th century]] [[Sir John Mandeville]].
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=== Private Vice, Public Benefit ===
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Mandeville arrives at a contemporaneously vile conclusion: vice as a necessary condition for economic prosperity. His viewpoint seems even more severe when juxtaposed with that of [[Adam Smith]]. Both Smith and Mandeville believe that individuals’ collective actions bring about a public benefit. However, Smith believes in a virtuous self-interest which results in invisible cooperation, and saw no need for external guidance of this impulse in order to achieve public benefit. Mandeville believes that it is vicious greed which leads to invisible cooperation, if properly channeled. Mandeville’s idea of the proper channeling of greed is a marked departure from Adam Smith’s ''[[laissez-faire]]'' attitude. Mandeville calls for politicians to ensure that the passions of man will result in a public benefit. It is 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” (Mandeville, 369).  
  
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==''Fable of the Bees''==
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In the ''Fable'' Mandeville shows a society possessed of all the virtues "blest with content and honesty," falling into apathy and utterly paralyzed. The absence of [[self-love]] (cf. [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes]]) is the death of progress. The so-called higher virtues are mere [[hypocrisy]], and arise from man’s selfish desire to consider himself superior to the brutes, or lower creatures. "The moral virtues are the political offspring which flattery begot upon pride." He arrives at the [[paradox]] that "private vices are public benefits."
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In 1705 he published a longer poem under the title ''The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves Turn'd Honest'' (two hundred [[doggerel]] couplets). In 1714 it was republished as an integral part of the ''Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits'', consisting of a prose commentary, called ''Remarks'', and an essay, ''An Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue''. In 1723 a later edition appeared, including ''An Essay on Charity and Charity Schools'', and ''A Search into the Nature of Society''. It was vigorously combated by, among others, [[Bishop Berkeley]] and [[William Law]], author of ''The Serious Call'', and in 1729 was made the subject of a prosecution for its immoral tendency.  
 
  
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The book was primarily written as a political [[satire]] on the state of England in 1705, when the [[Tory|Tories]] were accusing [[John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough]] and the ministry of advocating the [[Trench War]] for personal reasons. The edition of 1723 was presented as a nuisance by the Grand Jury of [[Middlesex]], was denounced in the ''London Journal'' by "Theophilus Philo-Britannus," and attacked by many writers, notably by [[Archibald Campbell]] (1691-1756) in his ''Aretelogia'' (published as his own by [[Alexander Innes]] in 1728; afterwards by Campbell, under his own name, in 1733, as ''Enquiry into the Original of Moral Virtue''). The ''Fable'' was reprinted in 1729, a ninth edition appeared in 1755, and it has often been reprinted in more recent times. Berkeley attacked it in the second dialogue of the ''Alciphron'' (1732) and [[John Brown (essayist)|John Brown]] criticized him in his ''Essay upon Shaftesbury's Characteristics'' (1751).
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Among other things, Mandeville argues that the basest and vilest behaviors produce positive economic effects. A libertine, for example, is a vicious character, and yet his spending will employ tailors, servants, perfumers, cooks, and distressed women. 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 [[English Restoration|Restoration]] and Augustan satirists.
  
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==Ideas==
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=== The Division of Labour ===
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Mandeville's philosophy gave great offence at the time, and has always been stigmatized 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]] (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]] ambition of being good") is actually detrimental to the [[state]] in its commercial and intellectual progress. This is because it is the [[vice]]s (i.e., the self-regarding actions of men) which alone, by means of inventions and the circulation of [[capital]] in connection with luxurious living, stimulate society into action and progress.
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Mandeville was an early describer of the [[division of labor]], and [[Adam Smith]] makes use of some of his examples. Mandeville says:
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<blockquote>
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…But if one will wholly apply himself to the making of Bows and Arrows, whilst another provides Food, a third builds Huts, a fourth makes Garments, and a fifth Utensils, they not only become useful to one another, but the Callings and Employments themselves will in the same Number of Years receive much greater Improvements, than if all had been promiscuously follow’d by every one of the Five…In Watch-making, which is come to a higher degree of Perfection, than it would have been arrived at yet, if the whole had always remain’d the Employment of one Person; and I am persuaded, that even the Plenty we have of Clocks and Watches, as well as the Exactness and Beauty they may be made of, are chiefly owing to the Division that has been made of that Art into many Branches. ''(The Fable of the Bees, Volume two)''.</blockquote>
  
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===Private vice, public benefit===
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== Influence ==
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Mandeville arrives at a very contemporaneously vile conclusion: vice as 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 cooperation. 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 cooperation if properly channeled. Mandeville’s qualification of proper channeling further parts his philosophy with Smith’s ''[[laissez-faire]]'' 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” (Mandeville, 369).
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While Mandeville probably had no intention of subverting [[morality]], his views of [[human nature]] were cynical and degrading. 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. 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 his critics. The aspect of Mandeville’s work which most closely approximates modern views is his account of the origin of society. His theories can be compared with Henry Maine's historical inquiries ''(Ancient Law)''. He endeavors to show that all social laws are the crystallized results of selfish aggrandizement and protective alliances among the weak. Denying any form of moral sense or [[conscience]], he regards all the social virtues as evolved from the instinct for [[self-preservation]], 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.
  
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In the ''Fable'' he shows a society possessed of all the virtues "blest with content and honesty," falling into apathy and utterly paralyzed. The absence of [[self-love]] (cf. [[Thomas Hobbes|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]] that "private vices are public benefits."
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Mandeville's ironic paradoxes are interesting mainly as a criticism of the "amiable" idealism of [[Anthony_Ashley-Cooper%2C_3rd_Earl_of_Shaftesbury|Shaftesbury]], and in comparison with the serious egoistic systems of Hobbes and [[Helvetius|Helvétius]]. Mandeville had considerable philosophic insight. His work is often disregarded because his thinking was mainly negative or critical, and, as he himself said, he was writing for "the entertainment of people of knowledge and education." He can be credited with removing obstacles for the coming [[utilitarianism]].
  
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Among other things, Mandeville argues that the basest and vilest behaviors produce positive economic effects. A [[libertine]], for example, is a vicious character, and yet his spending will employ tailors, servants, perfumers, cooks, and distressed women. 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 [[English Restoration|Restoration]] and Augustan satirists.
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==A List of His Works ==
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===The Division of Labour===
 
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Mandeville was an early describer of the [[Division of labour]], and [[Adam Smith]] makes use of some of his examples.<ref>''The Wealth Of Nations'', Glasgow Edition, footnote to page 27, section I.ii.3</ref>  Mandeville says:
 
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:But if one will wholly apply himself to the making of Bows and Arrows, whilst another provides Food, a third builds Huts, a fourth makes Garments, and a fifth Utensils, they not only become useful to one another, but the Callings and Employments themselves will in the same Number of Years receive much greater Improvements, than if all had been promiscuously follow’d by every one of the Five...
 
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:In Watch-making, which is come to a higher degree of Perfection, than it would have been arrived at yet, if the whole had always remain’d the Employment of one Person; and I am persuaded, that even the Plenty we have of Clocks and Watches, as well as the Exactness and Beauty they may be made of, are chiefly owing to the Division that has been made of that Art into many Branches. (''[[The Fable of the Bees]], Volume two'').
 
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==Influence==
 
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While the author probably had no intention of subverting [[morality]], his views of [[human nature]] were certainly cynical and degrading. 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]]'' theories should be compared with [[Henry Maine]]'s historical inquiries (''Ancient Law''). He endeavours to show that all social laws are the crystallized results of selfish aggrandizement and protective alliances among the weak. Denying any form of moral sense or [[conscience]], he regards all the social virtues as evolved from the instinct for [[self-preservation]], 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.
 
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Mandeville's ironic paradoxes are interesting mainly as a criticism of the "amiable" idealism of [[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury|Shaftesbury]], and in comparison with the serious egoistic systems of Hobbes and [[Claude Adrien Helvétius|Helvétius]]. It is mere prejudice to deny that Mandeville had considerable philosophic insight; at the same time he was mainly negative or critical, and, as he himself said, he was writing for "the entertainment of people of knowledge and education." He can be said to have removed obstacles for the coming [[utilitarianism]].
 
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===Works===
 
 
*''Typhon: a Burlesque Poem'' (1704)
 
*''Typhon: a Burlesque Poem'' (1704)
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*''[[Aesop]] Dress'd, or a Collection of Fables writ in Familiar Verse'' (1704)
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*''Aesop Dress'd, or a Collection of Fables writ in Familiar Verse'' (1704)
 
*''The Planter's Charity'' (1704)
 
*''The Planter's Charity'' (1704)
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*''The Virgin Unmasked'' (1709, 1724, 1731, 1742), a work in which, the coarser side of his nature is prominent
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*''The Virgin Unmasked'' (1709, 1724, 1731, 1742), a work in which the coarser side of his nature is prominent
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*''Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions'' (1711, 1715, 1730) admired by [[Samuel Johnson|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 [[John Locke|Locke]]'s methods, and an admiration for [[Thomas Sydenham|Sydenham]])
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*''Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions'' (1711, 1715, 1730) admired by [[Samuel Johnson|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 [[John Locke|Locke]]'s methods, and an admiration for Thomas Sydenham).
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*''[[The Fable of the Bees]]'' (1714)
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*''The Fable of the Bees'' (1714)
 
*''Free Thoughts on Religion'' (1720)
 
*''Free Thoughts on Religion'' (1720)
 
*''A Modest Defence of Publick Stews'' (1724)
 
*''A Modest Defence of Publick Stews'' (1724)
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*''An Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at [[Tyburn, London|Tyburn]]'' (1725)
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*''An Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn'' (1725)
 
*''The Origin of Honour and the Usefulness of Christianity in War'' (1732).
 
*''The Origin of Honour and the Usefulness of Christianity in War'' (1732).
 
Other works attributed, wrongly, to him are ''The World Unmasked'' (1736) and ''Zoologia medicinalis hibernica'' (1744).
 
Other works attributed, wrongly, to him are ''The World Unmasked'' (1736) and ''Zoologia medicinalis hibernica'' (1744).
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
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<references/>
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===Primary Sources===
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*{{1911}}
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*Mandeville, Bernard. ''The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Publick Benefits.'' Liberty Classics, 1989.
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*See Hill's ''Boswell'', iii. 291-293; [[Leslie Stephen]]'s ''English Thought in the Eighteenth Century''; [[Alexander Bain]]'s ''Moral Science'' (593-598); Windel-ia.nd's ''History of Ethics'' (Eng. trans. Tufts); JM Robertson, ''Pioneer Humanists'' (1907); P Sakmann, ''Bernard de Mandeville und die Bienenfabel-Controverse'' (Freiburg, 1897)
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* Mandeville, Bernard, and E.J. Hunder. ''The Fable of the Bees: And Other Writings'', Abridged Ed edition. Hackett Publishing Company, 1997.
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*Mandeville, Bernard. Fable of the Bees, I, p 369, in the appended "A Search into the Nature of Society."
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===Secondary Sources===
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*Bain, M.A. Alexander. ''Moral Science: A Compendium Of Ethics''. Kessinger Publishing, 2004.
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*Robertson, John M. ''Pioneer Humanists''. University Press of the Pacific, 2004.
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*Stephen, Leslie. ''History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century''. Thoemmes Press, 1997.
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*Tufts, James Hayden. ''The individual and his relation to society as reflected in British ethics'' (University of Chicago Contributions to philosophy). The University of Chicago Press, 1898.
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
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* Some books can be freely obtained on the website of [http://www.manybooks.net/authors/mandevil.html manybooks.net ]
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All links retrieved September 29, 2023.
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* {{gutenberg author|id=Bernard_de_Mandeville|name=Bernard de Mandeville}}
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* [http://www.bernard-mandeville.nl Project Bernard Mandeville] - in Dutch, but with some English translations and many biographical details.
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* [http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/m#a2543 Works of Bernard de Mandeville, Project Gutenberg]
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* [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/mandev.htm Summary of his life].  Includes a link to the 1705 poem ''The Grumbling Hive''
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* [http://www.bernard-mandeville.nl Project Bernard Mandeville- in Dutch, but with some English translations and many biographical details]
 
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4974 Entry in the Literary Encyclopedia]
 
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4974 Entry in the Literary Encyclopedia]
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* [http://www.ivu.org/history/renaissance/mandeville.html Included in a ''History of Vegetarianism'']
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* [http://www.ivu.org/history/renaissance/mandeville.html In a ''History of Vegetarianism'']
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* [http://www.c18.rutgers.edu/biblio/mandeville.html] A scholarly bibliography by Charles W. A. Prior.
 
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* [http://oll.libertyfund.org/Intros/Mandeville.php] Several downloads of works by Mandeville, including ''The Fable of the Bees''
 
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* [http://pedagogie.ac-toulouse.fr/philosophie/textes/mandevillethefableofthebees.htm] Text of ''The Fable of the Bees'', plus Mandeville on 'Moral Virtue'.
 
  
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[[Category:1670 births|Mandeville, Bernard de]]
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===General Philosophy Sources===
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[[Category:1733 deaths|Mandeville, Bernard de]]
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*[http://plato.stanford.edu/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
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[[Category:English satirists|Mandeville]]
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*[http://www.iep.utm.edu/ The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
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[[Category:Economists|Mandeville]]
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*[http://www.bu.edu/wcp/PaidArch.html Paideia Project Online]
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[[Category:British philosophers|Mandeville]]
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*[http://www.gutenberg.org/ Project Gutenberg]
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[[Category:Dutch philosophers|Mandeville]]
 
  
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[[de:Bernard Mandeville]]
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[[Category:Philosophy and religion]]
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[[fr:Bernard Mandeville]]
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[[Category:Economists]]
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[[nl:Bernard Mandeville]]
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[[Category:Biography]]
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[[ru:Мандевиль, Бернард де]]
 
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[[sv:Bernard de Mandeville]]
 
  
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{{Classical economists}}
 
{{credit|68833563}}
 
{{credit|68833563}}

Latest revision as of 15:56, 29 September 2023

Western Philosophers
Eighteenth-century philosophy
(Modern Philosophy)
Name: Bernard de Mandeville
Birth: January 19, 1670 (Rotterdam in the Netherlands)
Death: 1733
School/tradition: Classical economics
Main interests
Political philosophy, ethics, economics
Notable ideas
the unknowing cooperation of individuals, modern free market, division of labour
Influences Influenced
William Petty Adam Smith

Bernard de Mandeville (1670 – 1733), was a philosopher, political economist and satirist. Born in the Netherlands, he lived most of his life in England and wrote most of his works in English.

He was known for The Fable of the Bees (1714), which was first published as a 433-line poem in 1705; by the sixth edition of 1729 it had become a treatise. Mandeville depicted a hive full of bees, each going about its business in its own way, and suggested that vice and fraud were as much a part of their success as industry and virtue. All of these, he said, are necessary for a market-based society to flourish; vice and greed are among the qualities of the egoistic individuals who make up such a society. Mandeville examined the way in which private vices, such as vanity, luxury, and the desire for material possessions and fashion, benefit the public by creating a market for commercial and industrial products. The book was remarkably witty and appealing, and it sparked considerable discussion among moralists and economists. Berkeley and Hutcheson spoke out against its sarcastic and cynical implications, but its ideas influenced Adam Smith and anticipated the doctrine of conspicuous consumption later promulgated by the American economist and sociologist, Thorsten Veblen.

Life

Bernard de Mandeville was born in 1670, at or near Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where his father practiced as a physician. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but he was baptized on November 20, 1670. On leaving the Erasmus school at Rotterdam, he showed his ability in an Oratio scholastica de medicina (1685), and at Leiden University in 1689, he produced a thesis De brutorum operationibus, in which he advocated the Cartesian theory of automatism among animals. In 1691 he took his medical degree, giving as his inaugural disputation, a thesis entitled, De chylosi vitiate. He moved to England to learn the language and succeeded so well that many refused to believe he was a foreigner. His father had been banished from Rotterdam in 1690 for involvement in the Costerman tax riots; this may have been one reason for Mandeville’s decision to move to England.

Mandeville settled in London, and in 1699 married an Englishwoman, with whom he had two children. As a physician he was well respected, and his literary works brought in a good income. His conversational abilities won him the friendship of Lord Macclesfield (Chief Justice, 1710-1718) who introduced him to Joseph Addison, described by Mandeville as "a parson in a tye-wig." Mandeville’s first literary works in English were burlesque paraphrases from the seventeenth century French poet, Jean de La Fontaine, and the seventeenth century French writer Paul Scarron. Mandeville died of influenza on January 21, 1733, at Hackney.

Works and Thought

Fable of the Bees

In 1705 he published a poem of two hundred doggerel couplets under the title The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves Turn'd Honest. In 1714 this poem was republished as an integral part of the Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits, consisting of a prose commentary, called Remarks, and an essay, An Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue. In 1723 a later edition appeared, including An Essay on Charity and Charity Schools, and A Search into the Nature of Society. It was vigorously attacked by, among others, Bishop Berkeley and William Law, author of The Serious Call, and in 1729 was made the subject of a prosecution for its “immoral tendencies.”

The book was primarily written as a political satire on the state of England in 1705, when the Tories were accusing John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and the ministry of advocating the Trench War for personal reasons. The edition of 1723 was represented as a nuisance by the Grand Jury of Middlesex, denounced in the London Journal by Theophilus Philo-Britannus, and attacked by many writers. The most notable of these was Archibald Campbell (1691-1756), in his Aretelogia (published as his own by Alexander Innes in 1728; afterward by Campbell, under his own name, in 1733, as Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue). The Fable was reprinted in 1729, a ninth edition appeared in 1755, and it has often been reprinted in more recent times. Berkeley attacked the book in the second dialogue of the Alciphron (1732) and John Brown criticized it in his Essay upon Shaftesbury's Characteristics (1751).

Philosophy

Mandeville's philosophy gave great offense at the time, and has always been stigmatized as false, cynical and degrading. His main thesis is that the actions of men cannot be divided into lower and higher. The concept of a “higher life” of man is a mere fiction introduced by philosophers and rulers to simplify government and the relations within society. In fact, virtue (which he defined as "every performance by which man, contrary to the impulse of nature, should endeavor the benefit of others, or the conquest of his own passions, out of a rational ambition of being good") is actually detrimental to the commercial and intellectual progress of the state. It is the vices (the self-regarding actions of men) which, by means of inventions and the circulation of capital in connection with luxurious living, stimulate society into action and progress.

Private Vice, Public Benefit

Mandeville arrives at a contemporaneously vile conclusion: vice as a necessary condition for economic prosperity. His viewpoint seems even more severe when juxtaposed with that of Adam Smith. Both Smith and Mandeville believe that individuals’ collective actions bring about a public benefit. However, Smith believes in a virtuous self-interest which results in invisible cooperation, and saw no need for external guidance of this impulse in order to achieve public benefit. Mandeville believes that it is vicious greed which leads to invisible cooperation, if properly channeled. Mandeville’s idea of the proper channeling of greed is a marked departure from Adam Smith’s laissez-faire attitude. Mandeville calls for politicians to ensure that the passions of man will result in a public benefit. It is 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” (Mandeville, 369).

In the Fable Mandeville shows a society possessed of all the virtues "blest with content and honesty," falling into apathy and utterly paralyzed. The absence of self-love (cf. Hobbes) is the death of progress. The so-called higher virtues are mere hypocrisy, and arise from man’s selfish desire to consider himself superior to the brutes, or lower creatures. "The moral virtues are the political offspring which flattery begot upon pride." He arrives at the paradox that "private vices are public benefits."

Among other things, Mandeville argues that the basest and vilest behaviors produce positive economic effects. A libertine, for example, is a vicious character, and yet his spending will employ tailors, servants, perfumers, cooks, and distressed women. 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.

The Division of Labour

Mandeville was an early describer of the division of labor, and Adam Smith makes use of some of his examples. Mandeville says:

…But if one will wholly apply himself to the making of Bows and Arrows, whilst another provides Food, a third builds Huts, a fourth makes Garments, and a fifth Utensils, they not only become useful to one another, but the Callings and Employments themselves will in the same Number of Years receive much greater Improvements, than if all had been promiscuously follow’d by every one of the Five…In Watch-making, which is come to a higher degree of Perfection, than it would have been arrived at yet, if the whole had always remain’d the Employment of one Person; and I am persuaded, that even the Plenty we have of Clocks and Watches, as well as the Exactness and Beauty they may be made of, are chiefly owing to the Division that has been made of that Art into many Branches. (The Fable of the Bees, Volume two).

Influence

While Mandeville probably had no intention of subverting morality, his views of human nature were cynical and degrading. 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. 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 his critics. The aspect of Mandeville’s work which most closely approximates modern views is his account of the origin of society. His theories can be compared with Henry Maine's historical inquiries (Ancient Law). He endeavors to show that all social laws are the crystallized results of selfish aggrandizement and protective alliances among the weak. Denying any form of moral sense or conscience, he regards all the social virtues as evolved from the instinct for self-preservation, 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 interesting mainly as a criticism of the "amiable" idealism of Shaftesbury, and in comparison with the serious egoistic systems of Hobbes and Helvétius. Mandeville had considerable philosophic insight. His work is often disregarded because his thinking was mainly negative or critical, and, as he himself said, he was writing for "the entertainment of people of knowledge and education." He can be credited with removing obstacles for the coming utilitarianism.

A List of His Works

  • Typhon: a Burlesque Poem (1704)
  • Aesop Dress'd, or a Collection of Fables writ in Familiar Verse (1704)
  • The Planter's Charity (1704)
  • The Virgin Unmasked (1709, 1724, 1731, 1742), a work in which the coarser side of his nature is prominent
  • Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions (1711, 1715, 1730) 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's methods, and an admiration for Thomas Sydenham).
  • The Fable of the Bees (1714)
  • Free Thoughts on Religion (1720)
  • A Modest Defence of Publick Stews (1724)
  • An Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn (1725)
  • The Origin of Honour and the Usefulness of Christianity in War (1732).

Other works attributed, wrongly, to him are The World Unmasked (1736) and Zoologia medicinalis hibernica (1744).

References
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Primary Sources

  • Mandeville, Bernard. The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Publick Benefits. Liberty Classics, 1989.
  • Mandeville, Bernard, and E.J. Hunder. The Fable of the Bees: And Other Writings, Abridged Ed edition. Hackett Publishing Company, 1997.

Secondary Sources

  • Bain, M.A. Alexander. Moral Science: A Compendium Of Ethics. Kessinger Publishing, 2004.
  • Robertson, John M. Pioneer Humanists. University Press of the Pacific, 2004.
  • Stephen, Leslie. History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. Thoemmes Press, 1997.
  • Tufts, James Hayden. The individual and his relation to society as reflected in British ethics (University of Chicago Contributions to philosophy). The University of Chicago Press, 1898.

External links

All links retrieved September 29, 2023.

General Philosophy Sources

Classical economists

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