Bernard Mandeville was best known for The Fable of the Bees, in which he demolishes the supposed moral basis of society by a Hobbesian demonstration that civilization depends on vice. Today Mandeville is seen as a trenchant satirist of the manners and foibles of his age. He is also seen as a precursor of some of Adam Smith's doctrines, a forerunner in the field of sociology. A prescient analyst of the dynamics of our modern consumer society, Mandeville is author of a striking naturalistic account of the gradual evolution of modern society from its primitive antecedents. His literary...
Bernard Mandeville was best known for The Fable of the Bees, in which he demolishes the supposed moral basis of society by a Hobbesian demonstr...
In this study of Bernard Mandeville's A Modest Defence of Publick Stews, Irwin Primer breaks new ground by arguing that in addition to being an advocation for the establishment of state-regulated houses of prostitution, Mandeville's writing is also a highly polished work of literature.
In this study of Bernard Mandeville's A Modest Defence of Publick Stews, Irwin Primer breaks new ground by arguing that in addition to being an advoca...
In A Modest Defence of Publick Stews (1724) its reputed author Dr. Bernard Mandeville argues that the best solution to the problems of prostitution (with its related evils of venereal disease, infanticide and other crimes) is not to stamp it out-an impossibility-but to legalize it and regulate it under strict government supervision. This proposal seems serious enough, but Mandeville's satire, with bawdy humor and passages of deliberately faulty reasoning, calls into question the seriousness of this somewhat utopian project. In this first annotated edition, the editor reveals that this complex...
In A Modest Defence of Publick Stews (1724) its reputed author Dr. Bernard Mandeville argues that the best solution to the problems of prostitution (w...
For centuries readers have admired the writer who wields his pen like a sword - an Aristophanes, a Rabelais, a Montaigne, a Swift. Using ribaldry, satire and irony in varying proportions, such writers pierce the thick, comfortable hide of society and uncover, predictably, the corruption and hypocrisy that characterize the life of man in commercial society. Though a lesser talent than any of these literary giants, Bernard Mande ville is nevertheless a member of their class. The crucial year in the emergence of his reputation was 1723, the year in which he added his controversial Essay on...
For centuries readers have admired the writer who wields his pen like a sword - an Aristophanes, a Rabelais, a Montaigne, a Swift. Using ribaldry, sat...
