The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Publick Benefits

by Bernard Mandeville, F. B. Kaye

Overview

It used to be that everyone read the “notorious” Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733). He was a great satirist and came to have a profound impact on economics, ethics, and social philosophy.

The Fable of the Bees begins with a poem and continues with a number of essays and dialogues. It is all tied together by the startling and original idea that “private vices” (self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (the development and operation of society).

From that simple beginning, Mandeville saw that orderly social structures (such as law, language, the market, and even the growth of knowledge) were a spontaneous growth developing out of individual human actions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865970755
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/31/1988
Edition description:	In Two Volumes
Pages:	1044
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 3.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Editorial Reviews

"Between Hobbes and Hume there is Mandeville. He is able to offer possibly the first systematically derived account of politics and social order based on 'interests,' both rational and irrational. He elevated the individual and offered a new view of morality that contained the seeds for our contemporary understanding of human freedom and the good society."

Roger Michener, Princeton University

From the Publisher