The Fable Of The Bees (Two-Volume Set)
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few works in the history of Western thought have provoked as much controversy as Bernard Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees, a satirical masterpiece that argues, with scandalous wit and philosophical rigour, that private vices are the true engine of public prosperity. Originally published as a poem in 1705 and expanded through subsequent editions into a sprawling prose commentary, this two-volume Liberty Classics edition — meticulously prepared by F.B. Kaye — presents the complete text alongside Kaye's exhaustive critical apparatus, restoring the work to its full intellectual splendour. Mandeville's central thesis, that vanity, greed, and self-interest unwittingly generate the wealth and social order that moralists ascribe to virtue, anticipates the economic liberalism of Adam Smith and the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. A foundational text for moral philosophy, economics, and social theory alike, The Fable of the Bees dismantles the comfortable pieties of its age with a blade still sharp three centuries later. Mandeville's prose is by turns sardonic and forensic, dissecting human hypocrisy with the cool precision of a surgeon and the dark amusement of a satirist. This Liberty Classics edition ensures that one of history's most subversive and enduring arguments — that society thrives not despite human weakness, but because of it — remains accessible to every reader bold enough to question what virtue truly costs.
Author: Mandeville
Format: Paperback
Published: 1988, Liberty Classics
Genre: Philosophy
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few works in the history of Western thought have provoked as much controversy as Bernard Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees, a satirical masterpiece that argues, with scandalous wit and philosophical rigour, that private vices are the true engine of public prosperity. Originally published as a poem in 1705 and expanded through subsequent editions into a sprawling prose commentary, this two-volume Liberty Classics edition — meticulously prepared by F.B. Kaye — presents the complete text alongside Kaye's exhaustive critical apparatus, restoring the work to its full intellectual splendour. Mandeville's central thesis, that vanity, greed, and self-interest unwittingly generate the wealth and social order that moralists ascribe to virtue, anticipates the economic liberalism of Adam Smith and the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. A foundational text for moral philosophy, economics, and social theory alike, The Fable of the Bees dismantles the comfortable pieties of its age with a blade still sharp three centuries later. Mandeville's prose is by turns sardonic and forensic, dissecting human hypocrisy with the cool precision of a surgeon and the dark amusement of a satirist. This Liberty Classics edition ensures that one of history's most subversive and enduring arguments — that society thrives not despite human weakness, but because of it — remains accessible to every reader bold enough to question what virtue truly costs.