As his views are scattered through numerous dissertations, it will be best to summarize them under a few heads.
1.

_Virtue and Vice_.

Morality is not natural to man; it is the invention of wise men, who have endeavoured to infuse the belief, that it is best for everybody to prefer the public interest to their own.
As, however, they could bestow no _real_ recompense for the thwarting of self-interest, they contrived an _imaginary_ one--honour.

Upon this they proceeded to divide men into two classes, the one abject and base, incapable of self-denial; the other noble, because they suppressed their passions, and acted for the public welfare.

Man was thus won to virtue, not by force, but by flattery.
In regard to praiseworthiness, Shaftesbury, according to Mandeville, was the first to affirm that virtue could exist without self-denial.
This was opposed to the prevailing opinion, and to the view taken up and criticised by Mandeville.