qui - maria vita romeo

e other Mandeville: the origins of a scandalous thought. Mechanism, ecc. 55
of Burcherus de Volder: the mentor of the young Mandeville. 14 Here again
the soul and body ‘dualism’ is the core on which he develops the discussion
about brutes and the causes of their actions. During the seventeenth
and the eighteenth century, early modern science focused on reflections
investigating feelings, perceptions and intellectual
capacities of brutes, 15 trying to define their
correspondence with men. Mandeville, connecting
himself to Descartes’ notions, claims that thought
is possible only if there is an eternal and immutable
soul. From this premise, saying that brutes are provided
with the same soul of men is a contradiction
that conflict with the true idea of God; an idea deduced
and expressed by reason, because only God
is the author of substance and its eternity. Equally,
for Mandeville—and with him the Cartesians—is
a contradiction to assume a mortal and irrational
soul. 16 As well as some actions of brutes can be ex-
plained mechanically, through the concept of automation,
others at the same time still have an un-
Frontespizio del
Discorso sul metodo di Descartes.
14 For a brief history of the University of Leiden and some hints on Burcherus de Volder’s picture
cf. M. Simonazzi, op. cit., pp. 36-43; W. Klever, Burchardus de Volder (1643-1709) A Crypto-
Spinozist on a Leiden Cathedra, «Lias», XV (1988) 2, pp. 191-241, who, finding contacts between de
Volder and Spinoza, shows both the cultural openness of the Leiden professor and the ferment
which the Dutch University was undergoing at the end of seventeenth century and the beginning
of the eighteenth century. Central, among the Italian studies, for a reconstruction of the milieu and
a portrait of de Volder is G.B. Gori, La fondazione dell’esperienza in ‘sGravesande, Firenze, La Nuova
Italia, 1972, pp. 7-42. e source, from which the news about Burcherus de Volder derive, is J. Le
Clerc, Eloge de feu Mr. De Volder professeur en Philosophie & aux Mathematiques, dans l’Acadèmie de
Leide, in Bibliothèque choisie, Amsterdam, Henri Schelte, 1709, vol. XVIII, pp. 347-401. Cf. also
F.B. Kaye, Introduction to Fable I, p. cvi.
15 It is curious to note the interest in early modern science concerning bees and their organizational
skills; in this context the choice of bees as main characters of e Grumbling Hive, poem,
later incorporated in e Fable of the Bees, becomes more meaningful. Cf. Disputatio philosophica de
Brutorum Operationibus, p. A2, § II; see also W.J. Farrell, e Role of Mandeville’s Bee Analogy in
“e Grumbling Hive”, «Studies in English Literature», 25 (1985) 3, pp. 511-529 and P. Costa, Le api
e l’alveare, in AA. VV., Ordo Iuris. Storia e forme dell’esperienza giuridica, Milano, Giuffrè, 2003, pp.
375-409.
16 Cf. Disputatio philosophica de Brutorum Operationibus, pp. A3-A4, §§ IV-VI.