TITLE:
The Fable of the Bees and Its Legacy for Social Sciences
AUTHORS:
Albertina Oliverio
KEYWORDS:
Mandeville, Unintended Consequences, Human Action, Individualistic Methodology
JOURNAL NAME:
Sociology Mind,
Vol.13 No.4,
October
30,
2023
ABSTRACT: This
essay aims to highlight the importance of some aspects of Mandeville’s work for
the subsequent development of the nascent social sciences. His contribution to
the theory of unintended consequences has in fact influenced generations of
scholars following him and is still extremely relevant today. The study of the
unintended consequences of intentional human actions is one of the main tools
of that “toolbox” from which the social scientist draws in carrying out his
research work within an individualistic methodology. It is no coincidence that
it has been and is still considered one of the main problems from which the
social sciences originated. The paper will therefore try to deepen the
understanding of the originality and innovativeness of Mandeville’s thought in
relation to this aspect of the social sciences’ methodology.