Work · Empiricism, Enlightenment & Liberalism
The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits
A verse fable of 1705 (“The Grumbling Hive”) expanded with prose remarks and essays (1714, enlarged 1723, second part 1729): a prosperous hive that turns honest loses its trade, arts and power, since commerce lives on desire, vanity and luxury.
Introduction
Mandeville published the poem “The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves Turn’d Honest” in 1705; in 1714 he reissued it as “The Fable of the Bees” with an “Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Virtue” and prose remarks. The enlarged edition of 1723 added an essay against charity schools and was presented by the Grand Jury of Middlesex as a public nuisance; a second part in dialogue form followed in 1729. The fable tells of a prosperous hive full of vice that, made honest by Jove, loses its trade, arts and power. The book argued that commercial prosperity depends on pride, vanity and luxury and caused a long controversy; it was later read as an early account of the unintended social benefits of self-interest.
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Connections
Criticized in
- An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue1725 · Francis Hutcheson
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