The Analysis To Mandeville's Thought Of "Private Evil As Public Interest"

Ethics is an important part of human life and an important carrier of human spiritual civilization in every era.It maintains the balance between individuals and society.Its fundamental purpose is to make people live together in a harmonious social environment.It is difficult to imagine what kind of society a society without ethical and moral order is.According to Hobbes,a society without morality will be a battlefield where people fight against each other,which will eventually lead to social stagnation and the demise of civilization.Therefore,the questioning of ethics and morality has become the eternal theme of mankind,and the fruitful research on ethics and morality has become an important theoretical task in the development of human civilization.The turning road from the Middle Ages to the modern society in Western Europe in the past three hundred years has stirred many thinkers to abandon the things of traditional society and welcome new things,such historical facts as Renaissance,rationalism,empiricism,commodity economy and so on,which have changed the social outlook of Western Europe and promoted the change of people's ideological concepts.New ethical norms have been established.Under such a historical background,the development direction of Western European ethics has also undergone a turning point.The virtues of the medieval traditional society are considered to be inappropriate.New virtues are constantly pouring into the historical front.Mandeville's ethical thought is formed in the transformation of Western European society from tradition to modern times and is the product of economic and social transformation in the transitional period in the modern society of Western Europe.No matter how much criticism Mandeville has received,Mandeville's view of “private evils as public interests” still awakens the ethical thinkers after him,that is,how to properly combine personal interests with public interests and form a noble moral society.It is necessary to discuss Mandeville's ethical thoughts.Understanding Mandeville's view of “private evil as public interest” is the first door for us to enter the field of Mandeville's ethics and morality.Only by deeply understanding the relationship between private evil and public interest can we analyze how to build a Mandeville's eyes with a clearer mind.Mandeville put forward with great courage the fundamental role of private evils in promoting economic and social development,which is like a lightning breaking through the dark sky,awakening people from immersion in the subversive traditional virtues.Mandeville's contribution to the development of ethics in Western Europe is tremendous,because the problem of how private evils transit to public interests has become an unavoidable problem for any ethical thinker after him,and only by solving this problem can we promote the further development of ethics.Mandeville's view of “private evil as public interest” was refined as “Mandeville paradox” by subsequent thinkers,that is,the contradiction between private evil and public interest.According to the normal understanding,private evil is private evil,it can not become a noble quality,and public interest is public interest,in which there is no factor of private evil.But Mandeville put forward the idea that “private evil as public interest”,which is a milestone in the development of modern western ethics and worth our patience.From Mandeville's point of view,private evil is beyond doubt.Human nature is not a manifestation of goodwill,but the domination of human nature by private evil.It can be said that human nature has the nature of seeking benefits and avoiding disadvantages.Mandeville regards selfish evil as the basis of human nature and establishes the theory of emotional ethics based on selfish evil.Human emotions are always dominated by selfish evil,which is the core of Mandeville's ethical thought.This paper chooses Mandeville's thought of “private evil as public interest” as the research object,explains the concrete connotation of“private evil as public interest”,and tries to show the main content of Mandeville's ethical thought to people.This not only has an important theoretical support role for us to study the development history of modern western ethics,but also has a deep meaning for us.Understanding the moral behavior of people in commodity economy society(good or bad)can play a guiding role.Therefore,around the tension relationship between “private evil as public interest”,this paper mainly discusses several issues: Firstly,the starting point of Mandeville's ethical thought is to analyze the relationship between passion motivated by personal evils and human nature,and then to analyze the coexistence of personal evils and morality.On the basis of how private evil becomes moral formation,according to Mandeville's view,private evil's emotion is elevated to noble emotional state through people's pride.Mandeville believes that personal evil is the core manifestation of human nature.First of all,human nature does not lie in reason,goodness,altruism,etc.,but in the pursuit of self-interest and avoidance of harm.Human passion is centered around self-love,which is Mandeville's basic view on human nature.Secondly,it explains the road from private evils to public interests,and explains that private evils are not only the logical basis for social formation,but also the fundamental reason for promoting economic and social development,which provides objective conditions for the transition from private evils to public interests.At the same time,Mandeville believes that,on the one hand,the formation of society is a platform for the transition from private evils to public interests,on the other hand,economic development and national prosperity provide material conditions for the transition from private evils to public interests.In Mandeville's case,private evil as a motive will not lead to the decline of people's community life,but will promote the formation of society,which is the secret of the formation of society.Mandeville believes that private evils are the fundamental driving force for a country's economic and social development and prosperity.Without consumption,luxury and extravagance,it is difficult to imagine a country's economic development and prosperity.This is also the essence of Mandeville's ability to solve the problem of private evils leading to public interests.Thirdly,it analyses Mandeville's political guarantee to safeguard private evil,that is,how Mandeville achieved the unity of motivation and effect through political and legal control of private evil,safeguarded the authority of public rights,and curbed the expansion of private evil.Although Mandeville regards private evils as the basis of human nature,he believes that private evils play a public interest role in shaping society and promoting economic and social development,but as a safeguard of the public interest of harmonious and noble moral society,sophisticated politicians and their laws are needed.Through the concrete interpretation of Mandeville's thought of “private evil as public interest”,this paper argues that it is inappropriate to label Mandeville with extreme egoism.Mandeville firmly believes that human nature is evil,but he also believes that society is formed and developed under the condition of private evil.In other words,Mandeville's view of “private evil as public interest” is the dialectical unity of individuality and commonality.There is public interest in private evil and private evil in public interest.But let us mistake Mandeville as an important reason for the extreme egoism,probably because he constructed a way to explain the role of private evil,which is quite different from other ethical thinkers in the past.Therefore,through the study of Mandeville's “private evil as public interest” thought,we can get a great inspiration,that is,Mandeville's “private evil as public interest” thought provides a unique perspective for us to analyze the expansion of personal interests,and also provides a certain degree of help for us to solve this problem.However,Mandeville did not really reveal the social reality that led to the emergence of private evils,and of course,it is impossible to really solve this problem.At the same time,the ethical thoughts of contract theory,utilitarianism and deontology inherit the core of Mandeville's “private evil as public interest”,and try to solve the contradiction between personal interests and public interests,and put forward different solutions.But because these ethical thinkers are limited to abstract human nature preaching,it is impossible to really solve this problem.