| The Enlightenment's Fable: Bernard Mandeville and the Discovery of Society Contributor(s): Hundert, E. J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521619424 ISBN-13: 9780521619424 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $39.89 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2005 Annotation: The apprehension of society as an aggregation of self-interested individuals, connected to one another only by bonds of envy, competition and exploitation, is a dominant modern concern, but one first systematically articulated during the European Enlightenment. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography - Political Science | History & Theory - General - Social Science | Sociology - General |
| Dewey: 301.094 |
| LCCN: 2005278298 |
| Series: Ideas in Context |
| Physical Information: 0.67" H x 6" W x 9" (0.97 lbs) 300 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The apprehension of society as an aggregation of self-interested individuals is a dominant modern concern, but one first systematically articulated during the Enlightenment. This book approaches this problem from the perspective of the challenge offered to inherited traditions of morality and social understanding by Bernard Mandeville, whose infamous paradoxical maxim private vices, public benefits profoundly disturbed his contemporaries, while his The Fable of the Bees had a decisive influence on David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant. Professor Hundert examines the sources and strategies of Mandeville's science of human nature and the role of his ideas in shaping eighteenth century economic, social and moral theories. |