Gabriel Bonnot de Mably - Wikipedia Gabriel Bonnot de Mably From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, Musée de la Révolution française. Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (Grenoble, 14 March 1709 – 2 April 1785 in Paris), sometimes known as Abbé de Mably, was a French philosopher, historian, and writer, who for a short time served in the diplomatic corps. He was a popular 18th-century writer.[1] Contents 1 Biography 2 Writings 3 Further reading 4 References 5 External links Biography[edit] An official dressed as a Noblesse de robe; Gabriel Bonnet came from this class Gabriel Bonnot was born at Mably, Loire into a family that belonged to the Noblesse de robe or Nobles of the robe. This class formed the Second Estate whose rank derived from holding judicial or administrative posts and were often hard-working professionals, unlike the aristocratic Noblesse d'épée or Nobles of the Sword.[2] He and his older brother Jean added "de Mably" to their names; his younger brother Étienne used another family property, at Condillac, Drôme. As 'Condillac', he also became a noted writer and philosopher. Gabriel and his brothers were educated in an institution run by the Society of Jesus or Jesuits; he enrolled in a seminary at Saint-Sulpice. In 1742, he became a confidant of Cardinal Tencin, then Minister of State without Portfolio, for whom he carried out various diplomatic roles during the 1740 to 1748 War of the Austrian Succession. They included negotiating an alliance with Prussia in 1743 and preparing terms for the 1746 Congress of Breda, which sought to agree a separate peace with Britain. However, he fell out with Cardinal Tencin and thereafter focused on scholarly pursuits.[3] Based on the recommendation of Françoise-Louise de Warens, in April 1740, Mably's older brother Jean employed the 28 year old Jean-Jacques Rousseau as tutor for his two oldest sons. Rousseau produced two short works addressed to Jean de Mably: “Memorandum Presented to Monsieur de Mably on the Education of Monsieur His Son” and the shorter “Plan for the Education of Monsieur de Sainte-Marie.” These outline a proposed system of education for Jean de Mably's sons and also present one of his earliest public self-reflections and self-justifications. By summer 1741, Rousseau realized he was ill-suited to the position and the two agreed to end his employment, parting on friendly terms. The historian Leo Damrosch explains that at this time, Abbé de Mably "had just published a treatise comparing Roman institutions of government with French ones and celebrating the progress of civilization...Conversing with Mably, Condillac, [and friends he had met at Lyon's reading club] Parisot, Bordes, and their friends, Rousseau found himself in a stimulating intellectual milieu, and the studies he had put himself through in Chambéry suddenly came to life."[1] Rousseau would remain lifelong friends with Mably and his family. Both Mably and his brother Condillac visited Rousseau when he moved to Montmorency, Val-d'Oise.[1] Rousseau later reflected upon his experience tutoring Jean de Mably's sons in The Confessions. Writings[edit] Engraving of Gabriel Bonnot de Mably Mably's most well-known work is Entretiens de Phocion, a dialogue first published in 1763, which introduced themes of his mature thought. Two of his works were published posthumously and they had a profound effect on the early deliberations on the assembly of the Estates-General of 1789: an enlarged version of his Histoire de France (first published in 1765), which was published in May 1789 to great acclaim. Authorities tried unsuccessfully to suppress it by confiscating many copies. Secondly, Des droits et des devoirs du citoyen, written in 1758, was also published after his death. He warned against events that later developed during the French Revolution. These two works were seen to contribute 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 further than the traditional Stoic argument that all men possessed a divine spark. He also went beyond the liberal concept of equality before the law, and argued for the equality of needs. He argued that virtue was more valued than the acquisition or possession of material wealth, and criticized idleness. He found an audience among those who were critical of the inherited wealth and privilege of the nobility, who did no work. 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, published in 1786-1794 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; 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 0-9557974-0-3 Letters to Madame the Marchioness of P **** on the Opera – Comtal Publications, 2010 – ISBN 978-0-9557974-1-5 Further reading[edit] Johnson Kent Wright, A Classical Republican in Eighteenth-Century France: The Political Thought of Mably (Stanford University Press, 1997). V. I. Guerrier, L'Abbé de Mably, moraliste et politique (Paris: 1886) Mably's work is catalogued at the French National Library Charles Philippe Dijon de Monteton, Der lange Schatten des Abbé Bonnot de Mably. Divergenzen und Analogien seines Denkens in der Politischen Theorie des Grafen Sieyès, in: Thiele, U. (ed.): Volkssouveränität und Freiheitsrechte. Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes' Staatsverständnis, Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2009, S. 43–110 References[edit] ^ a b c Leo Damrosch (2007). Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius. Mariner Books. ^ Gaspar, Julia (2013). The Marquis d'Argens: A Philosophical Life. Lexington. p. 244. ISBN 978-0739182338. ^ Lieber, Francis (1836). Encyclopædia Americana: Volume VIII. Deliver, Thomas & Co. p. 170. External links[edit] The French Revolution and the Socialist Tradition: Early French Communists, History Guide Conversations with Phocion: the political thought of Mably, History of Political Thought, 1992, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 391–415(25), JK Wright, abstract only Authority control BIBSYS: 90922876 BNE: XX1446742 BNF: cb11913723c (data) CANTIC: a11869380 GND: 118575643 ICCU: IT\ICCU\RAVV\039567 ISNI: 0000 0001 0920 6011 LCCN: n50053368 LNB: 000058126 NDL: 001174158 NKC: mzk2003197389 NLA: 35731389 NLG: 129158 NLP: A11851752 NSK: 000557619 NTA: 070697264 PLWABN: 9810660145705606 SELIBR: 274692 SUDOC: 026999250 Trove: 1062027 VcBA: 495/10771 VIAF: 84557373 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n50053368 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gabriel_Bonnot_de_Mably&oldid=948463578" Categories: 1709 births 1785 deaths People from Grenoble Enlightenment philosophers French untitled nobility 18th-century French philosophers 18th-century French historians Proto-socialists Hidden categories: Use dmy dates from July 2014 Articles containing French-language text Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ICCU identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLG identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLP identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages Azərbaycanca Čeština Deutsch Eesti Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Հայերեն Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Қазақша Magyar مصرى مازِرونی Norsk bokmål Polski Português Русский Slovenčina کوردی Suomi Svenska Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 1 April 2020, at 04:35 (UTC). 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