The Pursuit of Private Interests Creates Social Benefits – or Does It?
MANDEVILLE, Bernard.
The Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices, public Benefits. Edited and with an Introduction by Douglas Garman.
First edition thus. Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees was first published as a poem in 1705, entitled The Grumbling Hive, or Knaves Turned Honest, which is printed in this edition as first text, and later expanded into a prose work entitled The Fable of the Bees; or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits. Mandeville establishes an analogy between human society and a beehive, to illustrate a core contention that ‘private vices’, such as self-interest or greed, can lead to public benefits and contribute towards a flourishing society. This was a radical overturning of the notion of virtue, and caused controversy. Yet Mandeville’s work influenced thinkers such as Francis Hutcheson, David Hume and Adam Smith, leading to the development of ideas about division of labour and free market.
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