MANDEVİLLE’İN İKTİSAT FELSEFESİNDE İNSAN DOĞASI VE TOPLUMSAL DÜZENİN İNŞASI

Abstract

Bu çalışma, XVIII. yüzyıl düşünce dünyasının en çarpıcı figürlerinden biri olan Bernard Mandeville’in (1670-1733) insan doğasına yönelik geliştirdiği ampirik yaklaşımın, politik ekonominin ahlak teolojisinden bağımsızlaşarak seküler bir zemin kazanmasındaki rolünü incelemektedir. Mandeville, geleneksel ahlak felsefesinin insan doğasını idealize eden normatif ve kuralcı yapısını reddederek, toplumsal olayları gözlemlenebilir gerçekler üzerinden betimleyen ampirik bir yönteme başvurmuştur. The Fable of The Bees adlı temel eserinde ortaya koyduğu kişisel erdemsizliklerin kamusal fayda sağladığı yönündeki aykırı tezi, ahlak teolojisi ile iktisadi gerçeklik arasındaki kopuşun miladı olarak kabul edilebilir. Çalışmada, Mandeville’in ben-sevgisi (self-love) ve kendini beğenme (self-liking) gibi bireysel tutkuları toplumsal mekanizmanın temel dinamikleri olarak nasıl konumlandırdığı analiz edilmektedir. Yazarın sosyal bilimlere kazandırdığı evrimsel toplum anlayışı ve temellerini attığı niyet edilmemiş sonuçlar (unintended consequences) paradigması; Smith’in iş bölümü (division of labour) kuramından Hayek’in kendiliğinden düzen (spontaneous order) teorisine, Keynes’in efektif talep kuramından Veblen ve modern kurumsal iktisadın tüketim analizlerine kadar uzanan geniş bir entelektüel miras üzerinde etkisi olmuştur.

Keywords

• Bernard Mandeville
• The Fable of The Bees
• erdemsizlik
• niyetlenmemiş sonuçlar
• kendiliğinden düzen

THE FABLE OF THE BEES AND POLITICAL ECONOMY: THE CONSTRUCTION OF HUMAN NATURE AND SOCIAL ORDER IN MANDEVILLE’S PHILOSOPHY OF ECONOMICS

Abstract

This study explores the empirical approach to human nature developed by Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), —one of the most prominent figures of 18th-century intellectual thought— and its critical role in freeing political economy from moral theology through establishing it on a secular framework. Rejecting the idealized normative frameworks of traditional moral philosophy that seek to prescribe human nature, Mandeville develops an empirical method focusing on the descriptive observation of social phenomena. His provocative thesis in The Fable of the Bees, suggesting that private vices yield public benefits, marks a pivotal shift in perceiving economic life as a secular system independent of moral theology. This paper analyzes how Mandeville repositioned human passions, such as self-love and self-liking, as the fundamental mechanical drivers of social interaction. The evolutionary understanding of society and the idea of unintended consequences, the foundations of which were laid by the author, deeply influenced upon a vast intellectual legacy, influencing Smith’s theory of the division of labour, Hayek’s spontaneous order, Keynes’s effective demand, and the conspicuous consumption analyses of Veblen and modern institutional economics.

Keywords

• Bernard Mandeville
• The Fable of the Bees
• Vice
• unintended
• consequences
• spontaneous

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