Gabriel Bonnot de Mably

Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (Grenoble, March 14, 1709 – April 2, 1785 in Paris), sometimes known as Abbé de Mably, was a French philosopher and politician. , Grenoble (Occitan: Grasanòbol) is a city and commune in south-east France, situated at the foot of the Alps, at the confluence of the Drac into the Isère River. ... March 14 is the 73rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (74th in leap years) with 292 days remaining in the year. ... // Events January 12 - Two-month freezing period begins in France - The coast of the Atlantic and Seine River freeze, crops fail and at least 24. ... April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 273 days remaining. ... 1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur Tossed by the waves, she does not founder Coordinates : , Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) Administration Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Département Paris (75) Région ÃŽle-de-France Mayor Bertrand Delanoë (PS) City (commune) Characteristics Land Area 86. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... A politician is an individual who is a formally recognized and active member of a government, or a person who influences the way a society is governed through an understanding of political power and group dynamics. ...

Background

He was one of the 18th century's most popular writers but largely passed into obscurity in the 20th century. His works contributed to the later concepts of both communism and republicanism. His most known contribution is Entretiens de Phocion, a dialogue first published in 1763, which introduced themes of his mature thought. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Republicanism is the idea of a nation being governed as a republic. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 1763 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Writings

Mably's writings contain a paradox: an admiration of the elitist Plato, combined with an enlightened Stoic belief in natural human equality. Mably went beyond the Stoic concept that all men possess a divine spark, and beyond the liberal belief in equality before the law, insisting on the equality of needs. He believed that virtue was far more important than material wealth. His position toward human equality was uncompromising, his arguments against the unproductive and lazy found sympathy with those individuals who resented the wealth and privilege of unworking nobility. He proposed the abolition of private property so that people's antisocial or egotistical instincts would not overcome their inclinations to sympathy and altruism. Robert Boyles self-flowing flask fills itself in this diagram, but perpetual motion machines cannot exist (according to our present understanding of physics). ... Elitism is a belief or attitude that an elite — a selected group of persons whose personal abilities, specialized training or other attributes place them at the top of any field (see below) — are the people whose views on a matter are to be taken most seriously, or who are alone... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Stoicism is a school of philosophy commonly associated with such Greek philosophers as Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes, or Chrysippus and with such later Romans as Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus. ... For the Jain teacher Mahāvīras philosophy, see vitalism (philosophy). ... Virtue (Latin virtus; Greek ) is moral excellence of a man or a woman. ... Wealth derives from the old English word weal, which meant well-being or welfare. The term was originally an adjective to describe the possession of such qualities. ... The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the door of the Lodge of the Heralds. ...

Mably also prepared an early draft of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791, claimed to be Europe's first modern codified constitution, much praised during the French Revolution. May 3rd Constitution (painting by Jan Matejko, 1891). ... World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... Liberty Leading the People, a painting by Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830 but which has come to be generally accepted as symbolic of French popular uprisings against the monarchy in general and the French Revolution in particular. ...

Mably's complete works were published in 15 volumes in 1794-1795, with an obituary/biography by Gabriel Brizard.

Further reading

• Johnson Kent Wright, A Classical Republican in Eighteenth-Century France: The Political Thought of Mably, Stanford University Press 1997
• Mably's work is catalogued at the French National Library

External links

• The French Revolution and the Socialist Tradition: Early French Communists
• 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