Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
1-2025
Abstract
There is ‘a tendency to evaluate philosophical theories of human nature as more accurate or adequate when they are more attractive or flattering, not when they are more truthful,’ claim two contemporary moral psychologists (Flanagan and Hu 2011: 312). While this tendency may not be as widely shared as these scholars expect, the flip side of their claim indeed captures a factual truth: philosophers seldom avoid attacks on their theories and even their personalities when they insiston exposing the dark side of human nature. Indeed, not all philosophers attacked for this reasonlose their popularity, as numerous readers of Machiavelli and Hobbes can testify. Bernard Mandeville, however, does not seem to enjoy this immunity, who, as Robin Douglass reaffirms at the beginning of his Mandeville’s Fable, ‘is no longer a household name’. Additionally, the eighteenth-century Anglo-Dutch thinker’s frivolous tones have led some to suspect that his writings are too satirical to be philosophically serious. It is in light of this under appreciation of Mandeville as a social and political philosopher that Douglass states the purpose of his book: to ‘make sense of and evaluate Mandeville’s ideas and arguments on their own terms’ so as to take his ‘philosophical credentials more seriously’.
Keywords
Philosophical theories, Human nature, Pride-centered theory of sociability, Social recognition, Pride
Discipline
Ethics and Political Philosophy | Philosophy
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
History of European Ideas
Volume
51
Issue
1
First Page
157
Last Page
161
ISSN
0191-6599
Identifier
10.1080/01916599.2024.2373673
Publisher
Routledge
Citation
LIU, Antong.(2025). Understanding sociability through Mandevillean Pride: Comments on Robin Douglass's Mandeville's Fable. History of European Ideas, 51(1), 157-161.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4109
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2024.2373673
