The Fable of the Bees - Softcover

Mandeville, Bernard De

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3849685667 ISBN 13: 9783849685669

Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag, 2016

Synopsis

Mandeville's philosophy gave great offence at the time, and has always been stigmatized as false, cynical and degrading. His main thesis is that the actions of men cannot be divided into lower and higher. In the Fable he shows a society possessed of all the virtues “blest with content and honesty,” falling into apathy and utterly paralyzed. The absence of self-love is the death of progress. The so-called higher virtues are mere hypocrisy, and arise from the selfish desire to be superior to the brutes. He endeavours to show that all social laws are the crystallized results of selfish aggrandizement and protective alliances among the weak.

About this title

About the Author:

Mandeville, Bernard (1670-1733)

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 this edition

• Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 3849685667
• ISBN 13: 9783849685669
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 420