There is no crucial difference between humans and animals. We create this imaginary self, which is what matters to us. It's we're more keen onrusal. That that's a thing that really does mark us out. Mandeville thinks, ye, you're slightly different from animals. We're the only ones really have pride,. The desire for iself, for esteem has such a role in our inner comiton. Andsn't milk is sorce of approval? Well, it's also a source of milk.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733) and his critique of the economy as he found it in London, where private vices were condemned without acknowledging their public benefit. In his poem The Grumbling Hive (1705), he presented an allegory in which the economy collapsed once knavish bees turned honest. When republished with a commentary, The Fable of the Bees was seen as a scandalous attack on Christian values and Mandeville was recommended for prosecution for his tendency to corrupt all morals. He kept writing, and his ideas went on to influence David Hume and Adam Smith, as well as Keynes and Hayek.
With
David Wootton
Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York
Helen Paul
Lecturer in Economics and Economic History at the University of Southampton
And
John Callanan
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at King’s College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson