An Ethic of Integrity
: Bernard Mandeville as Reformer

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis is a work of intellectual history that seeks to reconstruct the moral and social thought of Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733). In the context of the great eighteenth-century luxury debate, Mandeville has been viewed as the consummate opponent of moral and social reform. By revealing that commercial activity depended upon the ‘private vices’ of individuals, he forcefully argued that those who sought to instil traditional virtues risked undermining the engines of growth. In his view, contemporary campaigns to reform morals and manners were not only grounded in naïve accounts of human nature, but also threatened the prosperity and security of the nation. However, as the following will argue, this current orthodoxy does not fully encapsulate Mandeville’s thought on moral and social reform. By moving beyond the luxury debate and by focusing on his deeper philosophical and literary commitments, it becomes clear that theview of Mandeville as an anti-reformer is incomplete and, in some ways, misguided. Whilst he argued that vice and dissimulation were necessary for societies to flourish, he nevertheless demanded an ‘ethic of integrity’ from his readers. He intended his anatomy of man to generate a useful mode of self-knowledge, and he explored the practical applications of his psychological insights. By reconstructing Mandeville’s project of self-knowledge and moral and social improvement, this thesis seeks to capture an element of his intervention that has been largely neglected in the scholarship.Its main argument is that Mandeville’s thought is not fully comprehensible unless we account for a positive reforming project.
Date of Award1 Jan 2023
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • King's College London
SupervisorNiall O'Flaherty (Supervisor) & Hannah Dawson (Supervisor)

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