Atheism, Religion and Society in Mandeville’s Thought

Abstract

Starting by analysing the atheist's character, Mandeville gets gradually closer to Bayle's thesis on virtuous atheism, but he takes a different turn, and maintains that a society without religion cannot exist because atheism goes against a natural passion, fear of invisible causes. In order to understand Mandeville's position on this last point, in the second part of this essay I will consider his reflection on the origin and on the social and political functions of religion.