Gabriel Bonnot de Mably

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. He was a popular 18th century writer.

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Biography

Mably was born to a noble family. His education included a Jesuit college, and early on he pursued an ecclesiastical career, enrolling in a seminary. He abandoned that path to enter the diplomatic corps in 1742. His diplomatic career was a short one, ending in 1746. Afterwards, he focused on scholarly pursuits, for which he became the most known.

Writings

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.

His works contributed to the later concepts of both communism and republicanism. He advocated the abolition of private property, which he saw as incompatible with sympathy and altruism, and conductive only to one's antisocial or egotistical instincts. Mably's writings contain a paradox: he praises elitist Plato, but also the enlightened Stoic views on natural human equality. Mably went even further than the traditional Stoic argument about all men possessing a divine spark, as well as progressed beyond the liberal belief in equality before the law, arguing for the equality of needs. His argument that virtue was above the material wealth, criticizing idleness, found rapport with those critical of the inherited wealth and privilege of unworking nobility.

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)

Posthumous publications of individual works - 1786 until 1794

Posthumous Complete works to 1795

Recent Translations in English by Simon de Vries

Further reading

External links