Treating of Bodies Medical and Political: Dr. Mandeville's Materialism

Experience, though noon auctoriteeWere in this world, is right ynogh for me.Geoffrey Chaucer, The wife of Bath of Bath's prologue and taleBernard Mandeville is correctly known for helping to ground modern ideas of political economy in a naturalistic social psychology, affecting the views of David Hume, Adam Smith, perhaps Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and others. While speaking in his own identifiable voice, as a Dutch immigrant and physician in Britain he articulated philosophical and political positions well known on the continent. The medical flavor of Mandeville's views, which grounded the social in the personal, is not commonly noted, however. The way in which he argued for the physical nature of human bodies and minds, and by implication the societies in which they live, drew on a line of philosophical materialism well known in medical circles and soon after made famous by the French-speaking philosophe Julien Offray de la Mettrie. Such views harken back to the epicurean libertines erudites of the early seventeenth century. Through his involvement in professional medical conflicts he came to have both motive and opportunity for exposing the hypocrisy of powerful moralists who were simply trying to oppress innovations that would lead to material betterment. At the same time, however, Mandeville maintained the necessity for intervention in the affairs of the body politic by the "skillful politician" in the same way that he advocated the necessity of experienced medical practitioners for maintaining the well-being of their patients. In both cases, they could enable bodily flourishing, but only if the benefits they gained from doing so were exposed. He came to many of these conclusions from self-reflection about his own circumstances, considering how his own striving for success shaped his own actions and views.If we take Mandeville's self-reflection seriously, then a biographical approach to his work has the best chance of coherence, and although very little has been found about his personal life his medical connections can be traced. They throw further light not only on his milieu but on the sources of his ideas. In short, understanding Mandeville as a physician can provide insights into the nature of his political arguments and even point to the general importance of medicine for driving him toward materialism, which in turn pushed moral philosophy toward a branch of natural philosophy soon called political economy.POLITICS AND MEDICINEMandeville's most famous work down the centuries has been The fable of the bees (1714, expanded edition 1723). No doubt its popularity has been helped by the famous maxim on its title page: "Private Vices, Publick Benefits". It implies that the whole benefits from the private passions of each person: that wealth and power are derived from the ways in which nature drives us. The slogan is new in 1714, but it points back to an understanding of human nature he had forcefully presented some years earlier, in the satirical poem of a decade earlier that is reprinted at the beginning of the Fable, 'The grumbling hive: or, knaves turn'd honest' (1705). The poem explains that all humans really desire stem from vanity and the search for pleasure and ease. Consequently, "No Calling was without Deceit". But although "every Part was full of Vice, / Yet the whole Mass a Paradice". The apparent paradox of how the general good could come from individual failings could be explained by noting how politicians made virtue and vice friends of one another, so that "The worst of all the Multitude / Did something for the Common Good". Put another way, "Their Crimes conspired to make 'em Great. / [...] This was the State's Craft, that maintain'd / The Whole, of which each Part complain'd". Tragedy struck this great nation, however, when those who placed moral behavior above all else finally got Jove's attention, and he agreed to make everyone virtuous; without spending on luxuries the economy shrank and each act of modesty led to further hardship until the few remaining bees ended up living in a hollow tree to avoid their enemies. …