ABSTRACT
If people are selfish, why would self-interest nudge passions towards cooperation and mutual benefit? Mandeville argued that people learn the game of social and institutional conditioning to gratify their self-seeking desires. Self-seeking cooperation, however, is precarious, and society remains the scene of destructive and constructive forces. Hume and Rousseau each claimed the growing preponderance of one of Mandeville’s contending forces. Hume argued that vanity and greed restrain one other to positive effect if supported by appropriate institutions. Rousseau, by contrast, claimed that the harmful tendencies of vanity and greed reinforce one another in the face of an oppressive culture of recognition.
