Overview

Private Vices, Public Benefits puts Bernard Mandeville's social and political thought in its historical context. Goldsmith shows how Mandeville initially framed his views in The Female Tatler (1709-10) where, opposing Richard Steele's advocacy of public and private virtue in The Tatler, he contended that the development of society, prosperity and well-being depends on the vicious and selfish aspects of human nature. In The Fable of the Bees and its sequels Mandeville transformed this claim into an elaborate conjectural history of human progress. By rejecting the aristocratic model of human fulfilment, he was able to recognize other ways of pursuing happiness and also the denigrated capacities of women.

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9781877275463

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