ORIGINS OF MODERNITY

political philosophy

Mandeville, Bernard (1670-1733)
The fable of the bees, or, Private vices, publick benefits.
2nd ed., enl. with many additions
London : Printed for Edmund Parker ..., 1723.

A physician with a particular interest in psychological disorders and satirist, Mandeville published versions of his notorious Fable of the Bees from 1714 to 1732. Each was a defence and elaboration of his short satirical poem The Angry Hive, 1705. The version of the Fable of 1723 and 1732 are the fullest defences of his early paradox that social benefit is the unintended consequence of personal vice. It is an argument that is generally held to lie behind Adam Smith's doctrine of the 'hidden hand' of economic development.