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Courage and Chastity in a Commercial Society. Mandeville’s Point on Male and Female Honour

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Bernard de Mandeville's Tropology of Paradoxes

Part of the book series: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science ((AUST,volume 40))

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Abstract

The aim of this essay is to offer a survey of the uses developed by Mandeville of the notion of honour in his philosophical project, focusing on the role played by ‘Modern Honour’ in his conjectural account of the civilizing process. In particular, the issues of duelling and of the position and role of women in society are two parallel perspectives to look at Mandeville’s provocative account of male and female ‘points of honour’. Mandeville’s effort to explain the popularity of ‘Modern Honour’ plays an important role in his larger philosophical project of scientific, unprejudiced analysis of human nature. Locating the history of male honour and female respectability in the perspective of his philosophical anthropology, Mandeville is able to show that the rituals of Modern Honour are an exemplary expression of that spontaneous, artificial order stemming out of a natural disposition of human passions.

By Jove, I am not coveotus for gold,

but if it be a sin to covet honour

I am the most offending soul alive.

(W. Shakespeare, Henry V, (IV, iii))

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Mandeville, B. (1988) The Fable of the Bees, ed. F.B. Kaye, Indianapolis, Liberty Classic, Vol. I, p. 236.

  2. 2.

    See Kelso 1929; Mason 1935; Maravall 1984; Burke 1995; Richard 1999.

  3. 3.

    Swift, J. (1968) ‘On the Testimony of Conscience’. See Watson 1960; James 1978; Erspamer 1982; Kelly 1995; Spierenburg 1998; Peltonen 2000, 2003.

  4. 4.

    The Female Tatler 94, (February 15, 1710).

  5. 5.

    Mandeville 1988, p. 233.

  6. 6.

    Chamberlain E. (1718) Magna Britannia Notitia, or The Present State of Great Britain. See Cohen 1997; Laqueur 1990; Harvey 2002; O’Brien 2009.

  7. 7.

    Defoe, D. (1724), Roxana, The Fortunate Mistress, London, p. 148.

  8. 8.

    Defoe wrote on women’s education in the Essay upon Project (1697), on marriage in the periodical The Review (1704–1713), and also in Religious Courtship: Being Historical Discourses on the Necessity of Marrying Religious Husbands and Wives (1722).

  9. 9.

    Mandeville, B. (1975) The Virgin Unmask’d, or Female Dialogues Betwixt an Elderly Maiden Lady, and her Niece, on several Diverting Discourses on Love, Marriage, Memoirs, and Morals, & c. of the Times, New York, Delmar. The literary device of the dialogue between an Elderly Woman and a young virgin belongs to a tradition that goes back to P. Aretino. See: Goldsmith 1986; Vichert 1975; Castiglione 1983.

  10. 10.

    Mandeville 1732, p. 48; Mandeville 1988, Vol. II, pp. 6 and 37–38.

  11. 11.

    Mandeville 1975, pp. 27–28.

  12. 12.

    Goldsmith 1986, pp. 100 and fwd. See also Bond 1971, pp. 83–90.

  13. 13.

    See Goldsmith 1999 but also Anderson 1935; Vichert 1966.

  14. 14.

    The Female Tatler 95, (February 29, 1710).

  15. 15.

    The Female Tatler 88, (January 27, 1710).

  16. 16.

    Mandeville 1988, Vol. I, pp. 95 and 385.

  17. 17.

    Mandeville 2006, p. 44.

  18. 18.

    See Castiglione 1989.

  19. 19.

    Castiglione 1989, in part. pp. 95–99.

  20. 20.

    Mandeville 2006, pp. 59 and 63 (pp. 17 and 9 in the original text).

  21. 21.

    Mandeville 1988, Vol. II, p. 124. See Dickey 1990; Hundert 1994; Heath 1998; Simonazzi 2008, in part. pp. 201–216.

  22. 22.

    Mandeville 1988, Vol. II, p. 128.

  23. 23.

    Mandell 1992.

  24. 24.

    Mandeville, B. (1730) A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Diseases, London, pp. 249 and 246.

  25. 25.

    Mandeville 2006, p. 75 (p. 41 in the original text).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International Relations, The American University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Andrea Branchi

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  1. Andrea Branchi
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  1. Faculdade de Letras-Universidade de Coimbra, Largo da Porta Férrea, Coimbra, Baixo Mondego, Portugal

    Edmundo Balsemão Pires

  2. Faculdade de Letras-Universidade de Coimbra, Largo da Porta Férrea, Coimbra, Baixo Mondego, Portugal

    Joaquim Braga

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Branchi, A. (2015). Courage and Chastity in a Commercial Society. Mandeville’s Point on Male and Female Honour. In: Balsemão Pires, E., Braga, J. (eds) Bernard de Mandeville's Tropology of Paradoxes. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol 40. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19381-6_15

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