The “philosophers” in the apalogetic prism The luxury refusal “from reason and experience” in Gerdil

Apologists in eighteenth-century are usually said build their theories against economic doctrine in favour of luxury having resort to moral and religious texts. Such an interpretative scheme is too strict and misses the contribution of some authors as H. S. Gerdil, distinguished Malebranchist philosopher and cardinal of Roman Church. In his opposition to Mandeville’s and Melon’s theories of luxury, Gerdil has not the attitude of a moralist who is against modernity, but he uses philosophical and economical arguments even from authors, like Helvétius and Rousseau, whose books were on the Index.