The Fable of the Bees: In Two Volumes [Paperback]

Bernard Mandeville (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0865970750 | ISBN-13: 978-0865970755

Mandeville is the wittiest and shrewdest philosopher ever to make a significant impact upon economics. He anticipated Oscar Wilde in choosing his enemies with great care, and within his own century they included David Hume, Adam Smith, and Francis Hutcheson. He could afford even such enemies because his friends and admirers have been legion.

— George J. Stigler, University of Chicago

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 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Mandeville...anticipated Oscar Wilde in choosing his enemies with great care, and within his own century they included David Hume, Adam Smith, and Francis Hutcheson. He could afford even such enemies because his friends and admirers have been legion."

About the Author

Bernard Mandeville --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 1044 pages
• Publisher: Liberty Fund Inc. (December 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865970750
• ISBN-13: 978-0865970755
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 2.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,243,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unmasking Social Convention, January 29, 2008

By 

Ian Mackechnie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Publick Benefits (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Mandeville does a sterling job in unmasking social convention. His fable, upon which he provides his own commentary, stripes the outer layers of social convention from the reader and examines man from the perspective of his basic selfishness.

Mandeville has been criticized by many, whom he recognized, that have not even read his works. His work is still now largely neglected and unread., partly due to the quaintness of his 18th century writing style. But what a treasure awaits those who have the patience and perseverance to read this delightful work of ruthless honesty.

For example, Mandeville describes marriage mainly in terms of lust, not much different from the modern evolutionary psychologists. Prostitution is defended in pragmatic terms in that it 'protects' the family! Rulers who devote more time to the outward trapping of power and neglect such things as an adequate defense or police system come in for a serving. And on and on it goes ...

Mandeville is important in that the likes of Hume and Adam Smith were not only aware of his work, but influenced, in a positive way, by it. Mandeville, in terms of the development of our understanding of morals and society, cannot be neglected.

If you want to look society... and ourselves... honestly in the face, then this is the book.

My advice is buy the Libery Fund 2 volume edition

23 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, February 9, 2001

By 

Gary Malone (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Publick Benefits (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I first read an extract from this in second year English in university, and thought the author had some interesting ideas. Although the blurb casts the book as part of the great age of 17th-century English satire, it's more of a straight critique of society than a sarcastic diatribe, and probably doesn't warrant comparison with say, Swift's A Modest Proposal.

From what I can remember, the book is all about the changes taking place in society at the time, especially with the growth in the importance of commerce. Much of it concerns hypocrisy and some moral paradoxes that seem to go unnoticed. Mandeville's starting-point is to liken society to a hive, wherein the behaviour of the bees, though individually selfish, aggregates to form a kind of common good. The book was banned by the Grand Jury of Middlessex, and I suspect that much of the controversy resulted from readers mistaking description for prescription. In other words, people seem to have concluded that Mandeville was saying that this is how society ought to behave, whereas he was merely making observations.

His ideas are interesting, but I can't agree with all of them. One egregious error occurs when he makes the sweeping generalisation that morality is frequently selfishly motivated, using the following argument. Most people, if they see a baby falling from a high window, will rush to try and save it, not out of the child's interests, but merely to spare themselves the pain of seeing the child injured or killed. The next obvious question never seems to enter Mandeville's mind: if people are truly selfish, how would they have developed the empathy to feel the child's pain that strongly to begin with? So: a good commentator but perhaps not a brilliant thinker.