Froud's theory about how we socialize ourselves works very much like freud's theory of the superigo. What we want is to get on good terms with this other, this external view of us which becomes our own view of ourselves. Darwin red mandevile and appreciaton. And they both appreciate this thing about how some kind of rational order can emerge even when the agents aren't trying to be rational. Even though none of the bees have this intention of creating a grand hive. They are just trying to do whatever their instincts drive them to do. And that, and that has a kind ofrational order that comes out of nature itself.
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