The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, 2 vols.

Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments - written shortly after Mandeville’s death Smith takes issue with Mandeville’s characterization of human nature and the mechanisms he employs to understand wealth creation and social harmony.

Paul Seabright’s The Company of Strangers - his history of economic social life uses Mandeville and other 16th and 17th century philosophers as a contrast to the unintended changes that modern markets have brought to contemporary society.

In this Liberty Matters edition, the authors explores Mandeville’s influence on Hayek as well as the evolution of Hayek’s thought on human biases and heuristics.

Kaye was perhaps the world’s leading Mandeville scholar of his generation and this review provides readers with an important introduction to the contemporary impact Mandeville had on British and Europe intellectual and social life in the 17th and 18th centuries. He notes to readers that the…

Taylor takes an unconventional position on Mandeville by arguing that the Dutch and British physician and philosopher was in fact concerned about excess luxury and vice. He notes that not only is his writing on the matter more nuanced than is normally accepted but he also brings in evidence from…

Author Interview with Dario Castiglione on the contemporary understanding of Mandeville and modern democratic theory.

Douglas attempts to reconstruct a 17th century debate on the basis of ethics between two Liberty Fund authors - Shaftsbury and Mandeville. Mandeville famously attacked Shaftsbury for not accepting that hypocrisy was frequently an important motivation for human behavior, but few scholars have…

Douglass looks beyond the notoriety of Mandeville’s great work to reclaim its status as one of the most incisive philosophical studies of human nature and the origin of society in the Enlightenment era. Focusing on Mandeville’s moral, social, and political ideas, Douglass offers a revelatory…