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Man-Devil: The Mind and Times of Bernard Mandeville, the Wickedest Man in Europe
A lively and provocative account of Bernard Mandeville and the work that scandalised and appalled his contemporaries—and made him one of the most influential thinkers of the eighteenth century
In 1714, doctor, philosopher and writer Bernard Mandeville published The Fable of the Bees, a humourous tale in which a prosperous hive full of greedy and licentious bees trade their vices for virtues and immediately fall into economic and societal collapse. Outrage among the reading public followed; philosophers took up their pens to refute what they saw as the fable’s central assertion. How could it be that an immoral community thrived but the introduction of morality caused it to crash and burn? In Man-Devil, John Callanan examines Mandeville and his famous fable, showing how its contentious claim—that vice was essential to the economic flourishing of any society—formed part of Mandeville’s overall theory of human nature. Mandeville, Callanan argues, was perfectly suited to analyse and satirise the emerging phenomenon of modern society—and reveal the gap between its self-image and its reality.
Callanan shows that Mandeville’s thinking was informed by his medical training and his innovative approach to the treatment of illness with both physiological and psychological components. Through incisive and controversial analyses of sexual mores, gender inequality, economic structures and political ideology, Mandeville sought to provide a naturalistic account of human behaviour—one that put humans in close continuity with animals. Aware that his fellow human beings might find this offensive, he cloaked his theories in fables, poems, anecdotes and humourous stories. Mandeville mastered irony precisely for the purpose of making us aware of uncomfortable aspects of our deepest natures—aspects that we still struggle to acknowledge today.
In 1714, doctor, philosopher and writer Bernard Mandeville published The Fable of the Bees, a humourous tale in which a prosperous hive full of greedy and licentious bees trade their vices for virtues and immediately fall into economic and societal collapse. Outrage among the reading public followed; philosophers took up their pens to refute what they saw as the fable’s central assertion. How could it be that an immoral community thrived but the introduction of morality caused it to crash and burn? In Man-Devil, John Callanan examines Mandeville and his famous fable, showing how its contentious claim—that vice was essential to the economic flourishing of any society—formed part of Mandeville’s overall theory of human nature. Mandeville, Callanan argues, was perfectly suited to analyse and satirise the emerging phenomenon of modern society—and reveal the gap between its self-image and its reality.
Callanan shows that Mandeville’s thinking was informed by his medical training and his innovative approach to the treatment of illness with both physiological and psychological components. Through incisive and controversial analyses of sexual mores, gender inequality, economic structures and political ideology, Mandeville sought to provide a naturalistic account of human behaviour—one that put humans in close continuity with animals. Aware that his fellow human beings might find this offensive, he cloaked his theories in fables, poems, anecdotes and humourous stories. Mandeville mastered irony precisely for the purpose of making us aware of uncomfortable aspects of our deepest natures—aspects that we still struggle to acknowledge today.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published January 14, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 10, 2025
Long awaited this book. Happy to see Wootton helped with revision. Charming, accessible and necessary - Mandeville's thought has long been out of philosophic vogue but its practice seems more active than ever. Thoroughly enjoyed, 5 beans.
November 3, 2025
If you are interested in Mandeville's thought, then I would highly recommend this book. Mandeville's writings are often scattered on various topics, and he himself never set out to write a treatise on his views. His writings were alos largely satire and as such, it is often unclear as to what his actual views or arguments are in the Fable of the Bees or A Modest Defence of Public Stews. John Callanan does a wonderful job tying all his writings together to construct what is probably one of the most influential naturalist outlooks on human nature and morality in Mandeville's writings.
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January 22, 2025Imagine a beehive. The inhabitants are nasty little things: venal, selfish, and corrupt; greedily buzzing around guzzling honey and flaunting their stripes. Even so, the hive prospers. Then, one day, by a sudden act of God, the bees clean up their act. They become virtuous. And before they know it, the hive is in free-fall. Without vanity, there is no need for fashionable clothing. Without pride or luxury, the construction industry falls apart. Without gluttony or boozing, chefs and vintners are out on their feet. Without crime, the police twiddle their thumbs. And without fraud and deception, the lawyer-bees (we’re really stretching the metaphor here) are put out of business: who needs contract law when everyone is so damned honest? Now set that story to wince-inducing doggerel, add some explanatory notes and an introductory essay, and you have yourself The Fable of the Bees, Bernard Mandeville’s shock-success of 1714.
Born in 1670 to a family of wealthy Dutch physicians, Mandeville received his medical training in the Netherlands before establishing his own practice in London in his 20s. It was an unlikely background for a social and political theorist, but an advantageous one. As John Callanan shows in his entertaining and enlightening new book, Mandeville’s background as a physician instilled in him the sense that one could not comprehend the fundamental mechanics of society without first grappling with what made humans human. To understand the hive, you needed to understand the bee. For this reason, Mandeville devoted just as much time and effort to investigating matters such as hypochondria and sex as he did to sociological analysis. All these things were connected. Society was shaped by human behaviour and human behaviour was governed by base animal instinct. While this insight had, to an extent, been anticipated by theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, Mandeville’s capacity to link human psychology with broader socio-economic patterns was genuinely and radically new, anticipating the modern field of behavioural economics by nearly three centuries and the ideas of Adam Smith by a generation.
Read the full review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Joseph Hone is author of The Paper Chase: The Printer, the Spymaster, and the Hunt for the Rebel Pamphleteers (Chatto & Windus, 2024).
Born in 1670 to a family of wealthy Dutch physicians, Mandeville received his medical training in the Netherlands before establishing his own practice in London in his 20s. It was an unlikely background for a social and political theorist, but an advantageous one. As John Callanan shows in his entertaining and enlightening new book, Mandeville’s background as a physician instilled in him the sense that one could not comprehend the fundamental mechanics of society without first grappling with what made humans human. To understand the hive, you needed to understand the bee. For this reason, Mandeville devoted just as much time and effort to investigating matters such as hypochondria and sex as he did to sociological analysis. All these things were connected. Society was shaped by human behaviour and human behaviour was governed by base animal instinct. While this insight had, to an extent, been anticipated by theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, Mandeville’s capacity to link human psychology with broader socio-economic patterns was genuinely and radically new, anticipating the modern field of behavioural economics by nearly three centuries and the ideas of Adam Smith by a generation.
Read the full review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Joseph Hone is author of The Paper Chase: The Printer, the Spymaster, and the Hunt for the Rebel Pamphleteers (Chatto & Windus, 2024).
April 14, 2025
A challenge to Immanuel Kant's moral philosophy before it was ever formulated.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews