Men Become Sociable by Living Together in Society: Re-assessing Mandeville’s Social Theory

Abstract

In the first part of the Fable of the Bees, Mandeville’s emphasis is on developing a passionate theory of man in society, greatly influenced by his reading of French sceptical literature, mediated through his mentor, Pierre Bayle. That analytical tradition provided a psychological theory of man as an egotistical creature pursuing his need for recognition, respect and pre-eminence as much as one who must fight for survival in the Hobbesian state of nature. Mandeville distils and uses the central, sceptical notions of amour propre and amour de soi même to explain why men act in certain ways, including ways that may be labelled altruistic. This kind of analysis is made from first principles, although its principles are claimed to be derived from observation of the human condition.

In Part 2 of the Fable Mandeville becomes interested in the origin and progress of society, much in the mode that came to dominate Scottish Enlightenment thought in writers such as Adam Ferguson and Lord Monboddo. Mandeville’s treatment of the origin of language is particularly interesting in this context. While this “conjectural history” is alleged to be based on empirical observation, it can also be seen as a logical construct, a model which is used to explain the historical evolution of society from primitive barbarism to the polite, commercial refinement of eighteenth-century Europe.

The two strands of his thought may be seen as a link between the sceptical literature of seventeenth century France and the eighteenth-century conjectural history of the Scottish Enlightenment which ultimately underlay the emergence of modern, social science.