Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (Grenoble, 14 March 1709 – 2 April 1785 in Paris), sometimes known as Abbé de Mably, was a French philosopher and politician. He was born in Grenoble of a legal family, and, like his younger brother, the well-known philosopher, Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (30 September 1715 – 3 August 1780), took holy orders.
Background
He was one of the 18th century's most popular writers but largely passed into obscurity in the 20th century. His works contributed to the later concepts of both communism and republicanism. His most known contribution is Entretiens de Phocion, a dialogue first published in 1763, which introduced themes of his mature thought. However, there are two works published posthumously which subsequently were to have a profound effect on the early deliberations on the assembly of the Estates-General in 1789 - an enlarged version of an earlier work (1765) 'Histoire de France' and 'Des droits et des devoirs du citoyen', written in 1758 but Mably held back the manuscript from publication and arranged for his executor to have it published after his death. It appeared in May,1789 to great acclaim despite efforts by the authorities to suppress it by confiscating many copies. Unfortunately, the way the Revolution was conducted later led to the very circumstances that Mably warned against in his book.
Writings
Mably's writings contain a paradox: an admiration of the elitist Plato, combined with an enlightened Stoic belief in natural human equality. Mably went beyond the Stoic concept that all men possess a divine spark, and beyond the liberal belief in equality before the law, insisting on the equality of needs. He believed that virtue was far more important than material wealth. His position toward human equality was uncompromising, his arguments against the unproductive and lazy found sympathy with those individuals who resented the wealth and privilege of unworking nobility. He proposed the abolition of private property so that people's antisocial or egotistical instincts would not overcome their inclinations to sympathy and altruism.
Mably's complete works were published in 15 volumes in 1794-1795, with an obituary/biography by Gabriel Brizard.
List of 18 published works by Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (1709 - 1785)
- Parallèle des Romains et des François par rapport au governement (1740)
- Lettres à Madame la Marquise de P... sur l’Opéra (1741)
- Le droit public de l’Europe fondé sur les traités conclus jusqu’en l’année 1740 (1746)
- Observations sur les Grecs (1749)
- Observations sur les Romains (1751)
- Des principes des négociations pour servir au Droit public fondé sur les traités@ (1757)
- Entretiens de Phocion, sur l’introduction de la morale avec la politique, traduits du grec de Nicoclès, avec des remarques (1763)
- Réponse de M. Abbé de Mably à M. Abbé Rome (1764)
- Observations sur l’histoire de France, Books I - IV (1765)
- Observations sur l’histoire de la Grèce, ou Des causes de la Prospérité et des malheurs des Grecs (1766)
- Doutes proposées aux philosophes économistes sur l’ Ordre naturel et essentiel des sociétés politiques (1768)
- Du commerce des grains (1775)
- De l’étude de l’histoire à Monseigneur le prince de Parme Tome XVI du cours d’études pour l’instruction du Prince de Parme, aujourd’hui S.A.R. l’Infant D. Ferdinand, duc de Parme, Plaisance, Gasuelle etc. par M. l’Abbé de Condillac (1775)
- De la législation, ou Principes des lois (1776)
- Du gouvernement et des lois de la Pologne (1771 or 1776 ?)
- De la manière d’écrire l’histoire (1783)
- Principes de morale (1784)
- Observations sur le gouvernement et les lois des États-Unis d’Amérique (1784)
Posthumous publications of individual works - 1786 until 1794
- Observations sur l’histoire de France, nouvelle édition précédée de l’éloge historique de L’auteur par M. l’abbé Brizard (1788)
- De la situation politique en Pologne en 1776
- Le Banquet des politiques
- De l’étude de la politique
- Des maladies politiques et de leur traitement
- Des droits et des devoirs du citoyen (1789,reprinted in 1793, but written in 1758)
- Du commerce des grains
- De la superstition
- Notre gloire et nos rêves
- De la paix d’Allemagne
- De la mort de l’impératrice-reine
- L’oracle d’Apollon
- Des talens
- Du beau
- Du développement, des progrès et des bornes de la raison
- Le compte rendu
- La retraite de M. Necker
- Du cours et de la marche des passions dans la société
Posthumous Complete works to 1795
- Œuvres complètes de l’Abbé Mably précédées nouvelle édition précédée de l’éloge historique de l’auteur par M. l’abbé Brizard, 12 vol., slightly incomplete London edition (1789)
- Œuvres complètes de l’abbé Mably, 19 vol.,Toulouse (Sens) & Nîmes (Gaude) edition), (1791)
- Œuvres complètes de l’abbé Mably, nouvelle édition; revue, corrigée et augmentée, 19 vols. Toulouse (Sens) & Nîmes (Gaudeedition), (1793)
- Collection complète des œuvres de l’abbé Mably, 15 vols. Paris edition (Desbrières), (1794/1795) more complete than previous editions.
Recent Translations in English by Simon de Vries
- Concerning the Rights & Duties of the Citizen - Comtal Publications, 2008 - ISBN 0955797403
- Letters to Madame the Marquess of P .... on the Opera - awaiting publication.
Further reading
- Johnson Kent Wright, A Classical Republican in Eighteenth-Century France: The Political Thought of Mably (Stanford University Press, 1997).
- Mably's work is catalogued at the French National Library
External links
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