Mably on Esteem, Republicanism, and the Question of Human Corruption

Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (1709–1785) takes up the republican commonplace that the desire for esteem is what could motivate the fulfilment of duties of civic virtue. This commonplace, however, has become problematic through the discussion of the problem of human corruption in philosophers such as Blai...

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Autor principal:	Andreas Blank
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Aperio 2021
Materias:	social esteem imagination perfection civic virtue legislation Modern B790-5802
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f72e36e7ffed4895baf42701a2b16ef9
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:f72e36e7ffed4895baf42701a2b16ef9
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f72e36e7ffed4895baf42701a2b16ef92021-11-08T08:11:46ZMably on Esteem, Republicanism, and the Question of Human Corruption2644-065210.32881/jomp.142https://doaj.org/article/f72e36e7ffed4895baf42701a2b16ef92021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://jmphil.org/articles/142https://doaj.org/toc/2644-0652Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (1709–1785) takes up the republican commonplace that the desire for esteem is what could motivate the fulfilment of duties of civic virtue. This commonplace, however, has become problematic through the discussion of the problem of human corruption in philosophers such as Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) and Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715). In this article, I will show that Mably takes this problem seriously. However, his critique of Malebranche’s solution to this problem and his critique of the economic reinterpretation of Malebranche’s concept of natural order in the work of Le Mercier de la Rivière (1719–1801) motivate his own republican defense of the moral value of the desire for esteem. What makes this defense plausible is his argument that distorted esteem derives from imagination that is distorted, not only as a result of natural factors, but in many cases rather as a result of misguided politics. If some cases of distorted esteem derive from misguided politics, Mably argues, then they can be modified by republican constitution building that modifies the imagination of citizens.Andreas BlankAperioarticlesocial esteemimaginationperfectioncivic virtuelegislationModernB790-5802ENJournal of Modern Philosophy, Vol 3, Iss 1 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	social esteem imagination perfection civic virtue legislation Modern B790-5802
spellingShingle	social esteem imagination perfection civic virtue legislation Modern B790-5802 Andreas Blank Mably on Esteem, Republicanism, and the Question of Human Corruption
description	Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (1709–1785) takes up the republican commonplace that the desire for esteem is what could motivate the fulfilment of duties of civic virtue. This commonplace, however, has become problematic through the discussion of the problem of human corruption in philosophers such as Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) and Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715). In this article, I will show that Mably takes this problem seriously. However, his critique of Malebranche’s solution to this problem and his critique of the economic reinterpretation of Malebranche’s concept of natural order in the work of Le Mercier de la Rivière (1719–1801) motivate his own republican defense of the moral value of the desire for esteem. What makes this defense plausible is his argument that distorted esteem derives from imagination that is distorted, not only as a result of natural factors, but in many cases rather as a result of misguided politics. If some cases of distorted esteem derive from misguided politics, Mably argues, then they can be modified by republican constitution building that modifies the imagination of citizens.
format	article
author	Andreas Blank
author_facet	Andreas Blank
author_sort	Andreas Blank
title	Mably on Esteem, Republicanism, and the Question of Human Corruption
title_short	Mably on Esteem, Republicanism, and the Question of Human Corruption
title_full	Mably on Esteem, Republicanism, and the Question of Human Corruption
title_fullStr	Mably on Esteem, Republicanism, and the Question of Human Corruption
title_full_unstemmed	Mably on Esteem, Republicanism, and the Question of Human Corruption
title_sort	mably on esteem, republicanism, and the question of human corruption
publisher	Aperio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/f72e36e7ffed4895baf42701a2b16ef9
work_keys_str_mv	AT andreasblank mablyonesteemrepublicanismandthequestionofhumancorruption
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Mably on Esteem, Republicanism, and the Question of Human Corruption

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