Bernard Mandeville y las paradojas de un fabulador satírico

Abstract

The annoying mirror of the fable of the bees has attracted the attention of eminent thinkers and Bernard Mandeville, particularly known as the author of that fable, acquired a well deserved reputation in the culture of the European Enlightenment. The importance of Mandeville's thought at the present time seems to be unquestionable because it is possible to discover in his works a kind of reasoning that legitimizes the appropriate free market to an open commercial and flourishing society, in which the following paradox emerges: self-interest and private vices make public benefit spontaneously. Mandeville defended, as an attribute of his model of society, luxury, greed and selfishness in any possible manifestation, but he did so adopting an ascetic concept of virtue as a satirical instrument. With this ironical resort he sought to unmask the hypocritical mortality of his time, since going deeply into that idea of virtue some manifestation of egoism can be found. Mandeville was convinced that the true urge for action arises from passions sheltering in human nature.