Gabriel Bonnot de Mably

Biography

Mably was born to a noble legal family bearing the surname Bonnot. He had an older brother Jean and, with him, preferred to be called after the family's property at Mably, Loire, so they both took "de Mably" in their names. His younger brother Etienne preferred to be called after another family property, at Condillac, Drome. Condillac also became a noted writer and philosopher.

As was typical of men of their class, Mably's education included a Jesuit college. Early on, he pursued an ecclesiastical career, enrolling in a seminary at Saint-Sulpice. He abandoned that path to enter the diplomatic corps in 1742. His diplomatic career was a short one, ending in 1746. Afterwards, he focused on scholarly pursuits, for which he became the most known.

Mably and his family had a great influence on Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau at the age of thirty-seven, thanks to the connections of his patron Mme de Warrens, secured a job as tutor for two of the sons of his brother Jean Bonnot de Mably (who was then the provost general of police in the Lyon region). Both Gabriel Bonnot de Mably and his brother Condillac visited their brother and got to know Rousseau.

The historian Leo Damrosch explains that at this time, Abbe 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 Chambery suddenly came to life."

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. Rousseau later reflected upon his experience tutoring Mably's nephews in writing the book Emile, or on Education.

Writings

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)

Posthumous publications of individual works, published in 1786-1794

Posthumous Complete works to 1795

Recent Translations in English by Simon de Vries