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Bernard Mandeville's vision of the social utility of pride and greed

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  • Rudi Verburg

Abstract

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, pride and greed were hailed for their capacity to tame man's unruly passions and induce cooperation. Both narratives concur in the work of Mandeville. How, and to what extent, does the Mandevillean alliance of pride and greed account for social cooperation? Seeking to gratify his pride in a socially acceptable manner by accumulating wealth, man unintentionally creates the conditions that promote cooperation. Nevertheless, society remains the scene of conflicting forces. Social cooperation is unstable in being sought for reasons of gain in the zero-sum struggle for distinction.

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  • Rudi Verburg, 2015. "Bernard Mandeville's vision of the social utility of pride and greed," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 662-691, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:22:y:2015:i:4:p:662-691
    DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2013.824997
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sedlacek, Tomas, 2011. "Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199767205.
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    1. Hengstmengel, Joost & Verburg, Rudi, 2023. "The Uneventful Reception of Mandeville’s Ideas in the Eighteenth-Century Dutch Republic, or the Mysterious Case of the Missing Outrage," SocArXiv temz2, Center for Open Science.

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