Mandeville's paradox

Mandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), who posits that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole.

Version

v1 · 2026-09-28 · History

Domain-specific #

10545

Domain group

Humanities

Origin domain

Philosophy

Subdomain

Moral Philosophy → Philosophy

Core Idea

Mandeville's paradox is treated here as the recurring moral philosophy identity summarized by this source-grounded definition: Mandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), who posits that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole. Mandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), who posits that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole.

Scope of Application

• Documented setting. Mandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), who posits that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole.

• Documented setting. This is alluded to in the subtitle of his most famous work, The Fable of The Bees: or, Private Vices, Public Benefits.

• Documented setting. He states that "Fraud, Luxury, and Pride must live; Whilst we the Benefits receive.".

• Documented setting. The philosopher and economist Adam Smith opposes this (although he defends a moderated version of this line of thought in his theory of the invisible hand), since Mandeville fails, in his.

• Documented setting. Mandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), who posits that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole.

Clarity

A clear use of Mandeville's paradox names the carrier, the operative relation, and the conditions under which the source treats the identity as present. The minimal definition is Mandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), who posits that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole.

Manages Complexity

Mandeville's paradox compresses multiple moral philosophy details into a stable diagnostic relation. The source shows both the central mechanism—this is alluded to in the subtitle of his most famous work, The Fable of The Bees: or, Private Vices, Public Benefits.—and the practical consequence—this is alluded to in the subtitle of his most famous work, The Fable of The Bees: or, Private Vices, Public Benefits.

Abstract Reasoning

1. Type the carrier. Identify the moral philosophy entities to which the claim applies.
2. State the relation. Use the source-grounded identity: Mandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), who posits that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole.
3. Check operation and conditions. He states that "Fraud, Luxury, and Pride must live; Whilst we the Benefits receive.".
4. Demand recognition evidence.

Knowledge Transfer

Within the home domain. Knowledge about Mandeville's paradox transfers literally when a new case preserves the same carrier type, relation, and recognition test. Mandeville's paradox is named after Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), who posits that actions which may be qualified as vicious with regard to individuals have benefits for society as a whole. This is alluded to in the subtitle of his most famous work, The Fable of The Bees: or, Private Vices, Public Benefits. Beyond the home domain. No canonical parent is asserted for Mandeville's paradox.

Relationships to Other Abstractions

Current abstraction Mandeville's paradox Domain-specific

Parents (1) — more general patterns this builds on

• Mandeville's paradox is a kind of Paradox Prime

  Mandeville's paradox juxtaposes individually vicious conduct with collectively beneficial consequences.

Hierarchy path (1) — routes to 1 parentless root

• Mandeville's paradox → Paradox

Neighborhood in Abstraction Space

Mandeville's paradox sits in a sparse region of the domain-specific corpus (90^th percentile for distinctiveness): few abstractions share its structure, so a faithful description tends to retrieve it precisely.

Family — Moral & Political Concepts (9 abstractions)

Nearest neighbors

• Kavka's toxin puzzle — 0.83
• Narrative Poetry — 0.79
• Meno's Paradox — 0.79
• Relational goods — 0.79
• Privity of contract — 0.79

Computed from structural-signature embeddings · 2026-10-08