Authors: Jean Cartelier ¹

• 1 Université Paris Nanterre - UFR Sciences économiques, gestion, mathématiques, informatique

Beyond the contradictory appreciations of Mandeville famous book, condemned and misinterpreted at the time of its publication, repressed later, Fable of the bees is more relevant today than ever. The two founding acts of modern political economy—namely progressive emancipation of moral since 13th century and Smith’s value theory in the 18th century—are invalidated by the apparent paradoxes presented in Fable of the bees. This double denial of a political economy which was yet to come is what makes Mandeville so subversive nowadays.