Celebrating Mandevillean Readings in Latvia

On the 10^th of October the Institute for Environmental Solutions will host the Mandevillean Readings in Cēsis, as a part of the celebration of the 300^th anniversary of the publication of The Fable of The Bees (1714), by the physician and philosopher Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733). It has been the occasion for a series of international conferences and events around the world that enhanced the understanding of Mandeville’s writings.

Inspired by Mandeville’s stature as an accomplished philosopher with the influence on the European Enlightenment Riga Business School in cooperation with the Institute for Environmental Solutions and American University of Rome organise Mandevillean Readings – Mandeville in Latvia. From the 8^th to 11^th of October in workshops’ participants will explore Mandeville’s background, his influence, reception, the connections between Mandeville and other authors, streams of thought, contexts of his age and beyond, as well as Mandeville’s work in the wider context of the issue of “Man and Nature in 18^th century thought.”

Bernard Mandeville was an Anglo-Dutch philosopher, political economist and satirist. He is primarily remembered for his impact on discussions of morality and economic theory in the early eighteenth century. In his best-known, The Fable of the Bees, Mandeville develops a political theory in which Private Vices are said to lead to Public Benefits – the notion that the individual pursuit of self-interest leads to collectively advantageous results in a properly organized community.