MANDEVILLE, BERNARD de. - Writer, born at Dordrecht around 1670, died in London on 21 Jan. 1733.
A sharp and acrid writer (among his works: The Virgin unmask'd, London 1709; Free thoughts on religion, ibid. 1720), he owes his fame to The fable of bees (ibid. 1714 and subsequent revisions), in which he advanced the utilitarianism of vice in social life: according to M., “human societies would attain harmony and equilibrium
not because they are composed of individuals full of altruism and all yearning for solidarity, but because they are composed of perfect egoists in continual conflict, compelled by their mutual opposition and by the violence of others’ passions to accept compromise solutions, which would respect to the greatest possible extent their own and others’ interests.” (A. Fanfani, Storia delle dottrine economiche. Il naturalismo, Milan 1946, p. 12). Yet, as Grégoire has observed, his cynicism conceals the actual conservatism of a counsellor and inspirer of monarchs.