qui - maria vita romeo

Alessandro Chiessi
e other Mandeville:
the origins of a scandalous thought.
Mechanism, Materialism and Naturalism
LaWS aND goVerNMeNT are To THe PoLITIcaL boDIeS of Civil Societies,
What the Vital Spirits and Life it self are to the Natural Bodies of Animated
creatures; and as those that study the Anatomy of Dead Carcases may see, that
the chief Organs and nicest Springs more immediately required to continue the
Motion of our Machine, are not hard Bones, strong Muscles and Nerves, nor the
smooth white Skin that so beautifully covers them, but small trifling Films and
little Pipes that are either over-look’d, or else seem inconsiderable to Vulgar Eyes;
so they that examine into the Nature of Man, abstract from Art and Education,
may observe, that what renders him a sociable Animal, consists not in his desire
of Company, Good-nature, Pity, Affability, and other Graces of a fair Outside;
but that his vilest and most hateful Qualities are the most necessary Accomplishments
to fit him for the largest, and, according to the World, the happiest and
most flourishing Societies. 1
If we think about Mandeville, we directly think about the famous
aphorism “Private Vices, Publick Benefits.” 2 With these few words Bernard
1 B. Mandeville, e Fable of the Bees, ed. by F.B. Kaye, 2 vols., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1924,
pp. 3-4. From here on I will use Fable I for the quotations of the first part of e Fable of the Bees
and Fable II for the second part.
For this paper I must thank Prof. Paolo Vincieri (University of Bologna) for his advices on the
relations of nature and human nature, “pride” and “self-denial” and the specifications of metaphysic
and ontology. anks to Prof. Charles T. Wolfe (University of Ghent) for his considerations on
“Mortalism”, the use of the terms ‘soul’ and ‘mind’ in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and
his linguistic revision. anks to Dr. Iulia Mihai (University of Ghent) for her precious suggests
and linguistic observations.
2 Mandeville himself said that the aphorism had simply a provocative function, aiming, therefore,
to acquire more fame among the readers. (cf. B. Mandeville, A Letter to Dion, ed. by B. Dobrée,
Liverpool, University Press of Liverpool, 1954, p. 38). I do not know if this was true or if this
statement was only a way to mitigate the cruel controversy sprung from e Fable of the Bees’ pub-
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