Table Of ContentPage iii
The Enlightenment's Fable
Bernard Mandeville and the Discovery of Society
Ideas in Context
Page iv
IDEAS IN CONTEXT
Edited by QUENTIN SKINNER General Editor
Series editors
LORRAINE DASTON, WOLF LEPENIES, RICHARD RORTY AND J.B. SCHNEEWIND
The books in this series will discuss the emergence of intellectual traditions and of related new disciplines. The procedures, aims and vocabularies that were generated
will be set in the context of the alternatives available within the contemporary frameworks of ideas and institutions. Through detailed studies of the evolution of such
traditions, and their modification by different audiences, it is hoped that a new picture will form of the development of ideas in their concrete contexts. By this means,
artificial distinctions between the history of philosophy, of the various sciences, of society and politics, and of literature may be seen to dissolve.
The series is published with the support of the Exxon Foundation
A list of books in the series will be found at the end of the volume.
Page v
The Enlightenment's Fable
Bernard Mandeville and the Discovery of Society
E. G. Hundert
Associate Professor of History
The University of British Columbia
Page vi
Text found on this page in the original book is not available for the netLibrary eBook edition.
PUBLISHED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY (VIRTUAL PUBLISHING) FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF CAMBRIDGE
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 100114211, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Victoria 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1994
This edition © Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing) 2001
First published 1994
Reprinted 1996
Printed in Great Britain at Athenæum Press Ltd, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Hundert, E.J.
The enlightenment's 'fable': Bernard Mandeville and the discovery
of society/E.J. Hundert.
p. cm. — (Ideas in context)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0 521 46082 4
1. Mandeville, Bernard, 16701733Contributions in sociology.
2. Mandeville, Bernard, 16701733Contributions in economics.
3. Mandeville, Bernard, 16701733. Fable of the bees. 4. Selfinterest.
5. Economic man. 6. Enlightenment. I. Title.
II. Series.
HM22.G8M334 1994 9336440
301'.092dc20 CIP
ISBN 0 521 46082 4 hardback
eISBN 0511005814 virtual (netLibrary Edition)
Page vii
for Martha
Page viii
Whenever anyone speaks, without bitterness . . . of man as a belly with two needs and a head with one; when ever anyone sees, seeks and wants to see only hunger, sexual
desire, and vanity, as though these were the actual and sole motives of human actions; in brief, whenever anyone speaks ''badly" of man — but does not speak ill of him — the
lover of knowledge should listen carefully and with diligence.
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Though words be the signs we have of another's opinions and intentions; yet, because of the equivocation of them is so frequent according to the diversity of contexture, and the
company wherewith they go (which the presence of him that speaketh, our sight of his actions and conjecture of his intentions, must help to discharge us of): It must be extremely
hard to find out the opinions and meanings of those men that are gone from us long ago, and have left us no other signification thereof but their books; which cannot possibly be
understood without history enough to discover those aforementioned circumstances, and also without great prudence to observe them.
Hobbes, Human Nature
Page ix
Contents
Acknowledgements page x
A Note On the Text xii
Introduction and Agenda 1
1 16
The Foundations of a Project
Egoism, Politics and Society 18
Dutch Republicans and French Dévots 23
Medicine and Morals 35
Toward a Science of Socialized Man 49
2 62
SelfLove and the Civilizing Process
The History of Pride 63
Hutcheson's Polemic and Hume's Critique 75
Rhetoric and the Emergence of Civility 86
The French Connection 96
Rousseau in Mandeville's Shadow 105
3 116
Performance Principles of the Public Sphere
Manners, Morals and the Earl of Shaftesbury 117
Bishop Butler and the Pursuit of Happiness 126
Theatrum Mundi 139
Henry Fielding at the Mandevillian Masquerade 153
The Discourse of the Passions at its Limits 168
4 175
A World of Goods
From Hypocrisy to Emulation 175
Labor and Luxury 184
Homo Economica and Her Double 205
5 219
Imposing Closure — Adam Smith's Problem
Epilogue: The Fable's Modern Fate 237
Bibliography 250
Index 276
Page x
Acknowledgements
This book would still be unfinished were it not for the generous support of my research by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Particularly important was a Release Time Stipend granted by the Council which permitted me the luxury of devoting an entire academic year to this project. I worked
for a period at the Library of Cambridge University where John Dunn, ever a gracious and astute friend, arranged my stay at King's College and was a forbearing host
during a most difficult time. While at Cambridge, conversations with Istvan Hont helped me to clarify a number of my ideas.
Hayden White and Perez Zagorin have offered consistent encouragement to me over many years and, most importantly, have long served as exemplars of intellectually
invigorating scholarship. Dario Castiglione, M.M. Goldsmith, Charles Griswald, Jr., Irwin Primer, John P. Wright and Donald Winch kindly sent offprints or type
scripts of their work. Robert Anchor and David Wooton made useful suggestions about the book's organization. Christa Canitz and Wayne Thorpe took time from
their own work to offer assistance with a text in German and Dutch, repectively. The staff of the Interlibrary Loan Department of the Library at the University of British
Columbia cheerfully and efficiently dealt with my many requests. Mark Glouberman, Harvey Mitchell, Roger Seamon and Kay Stockholder discussed all phases of the
project with me, listened thoughtfully to my concerns, and read drafts of the entire manuscript. I am most grateful for the critical intelligence each brought to bear upon
my writing. Most of all, I am indebted to my wife, Carol Gibson, for her encouragement, support, toleration of a near obsession and, above all, for the companionship
without which this book would seem no more than a trifle.
The last section of Chapter 2 has appeared in abbreviated form as
Page xi
''The Thread of Language and the Web of Dominion: Mandeville to Rousseau and Back," EighteenthCentury Studies 21, 2 (1987/8), pp. 169–191, as has the
fourth section of Chapter 3, as "Performing the Enlightenment Self: Henry Fielding and the History of Identity," in Bonnelyn Kunze and Dwight Braughtigan (eds.),
Court, Country and Culture: Festschrifi for Perez Zagorin (University of Rochester Press, 1992), pp. 223–244.
