MANDEVILLE ON CORRUPTION AND LAW

Abstract

This essay makes a distinction between two different meanings of the word «corruption»: moral corruption and legal corruption. The thesis is that in Mandeville's thought vice can be useful, while crime is always damaging. In this perspective, law is fundamental to tell vice from crime. Three points are examined: 1) the relationships between law and human nature, law and ethics, law and society; 2) the analysis of Mandeville's theory of law, in particular its nature and development; 3) the theory of punishment.