The Fable of the Bees
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mandeville's work on the public benefit of private vices.
In Our Time · BBC Radio 4
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Show Notes
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