A. Le was the first person to come up with the idea that public benefit comes from private vice. He had a few precursors, such as Erasmus and augustinianism. There are frailties of human nature that sometimes lead to positive benefits over all. John callanan david wouldn't have said tatm he thinks it. But some people who take this up in the french tradition, like jacques abadi, say, of course, sometimes some of our vices, like our dry for esteem, our drive for success, create. fantastic poetry. We create great art.
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