Bernard De Mandeville's Tropology of Paradoxes ― Morals, Politics, Economics, and Therapy

This book integrates studies on the thought of Bernard de Mandeville and other philosophers and historians of Modern Thought. The chapters reflect a rethinking of Mandeville’s legacy and, together, present a comprehensive approach to Mandeville’s work. The book is published on the occasion of the 300 years that have passed since the publication of the Fable of the Bees. Bernard de Mandeville disassembled the dichotomies of traditional moral thinking to show that the outcomes of the social action emerge as new, non-intentional effects from the combination of moral opposites, vice and virtue, in such a form that they lose their moral significance. The work of this great writer, philosopher and physician is interwoven with an awareness of the paradoxical nature of modern society and the challenges that this recognition brings to an adequate perspective on the historical world of modernity.

Edmundo Balsemao is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Coimbra. He graduated from the University of Coimbra, in Philosophy (1986). He has a Master degree in Contemporary Philosophy, obtained in 1990 with a thesis on Emmanuel Levinas, and a Ph. D. with a dissertation on Hegel’s Political Philosophy (1999). He studied at the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (Hegel-Archiv) during a research year conducing to the Ph. D., as a DAAD fellow. He wrote Povo, Eticidade e Razao – Contributos para o estudo da Filosofia Politica de Hegel in two volumes (Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda, 2006), A Individuacao da Sociedade Moderna (Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2011) and edited Public Spaces, Power and Communication (Porto, 2007), Still Reading Hegel (Coimbra, 2009), Relations of the Self (Coimbra, 2010). He has also published many articles in specialized Journals, in Portugal and abroad and edited issues of academic Journals with international circulation.

Joaquim Braga is FCT-Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy of University of Coimbra, and member of the research group “Individuation of the Modern Society”, R&D LIF – Language, Interpretation, Philosophy. He is graduated in philosophy at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra. In 2010, he finished his PhD at Humboldt University of Berlin, with a thesis based on the philosophy of Ernst Cassirer. His current fields of research cover Picture Theory, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Culture and Modern Philosophy, with a special interest in symbolic thought. His works include, among others, Die symbolische Pragnanz des Bildes. Zu einer Kritik des Bildbegriffs nach der Philosophie Ernst Cassirers (Freiburg, 2012), Rethinking Culture and Cultural Analysis – Neudenken von Kultur und Kulturanalyse (together with Christian Mockel, Berlin, 2013).