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“It is not with forms of government,” Hume warns, “as with other artificial contrivances; where an old engine may be rejected, if we can discover another more accurate and commodious, or where trials may safely be made, even though the success be doubtful” (ESY 512).
This chapter examines Hume's account of political allegiance. It argues that just as Hume's discussion of justice is intended primarily to refute those rationalists who believe ‘that there are eternal fitnesses and unfitnesses of things, which are the same to every rational being that considers them’, so his account of political allegiance ...
Hume developed his political thought most explicitly in political essays of the 1740s and 1750s, and in his multivolume History of England (1754–1762). Discussions of justice and allegiance to government, however, appeared first in Book 3 of A Treatise of Human Nature , and then again in revised form in An Enquiry concerning the Principles of ...
By opinion of interest, I chiefly understand the sense of the general advantage which is reaped from government; together with the persuasion, that the particular government, which is established, is equally advantageous with any other that could easily be settled.
This chapter examines Hume's conception of government. It considers three forms of government that Hume distinguishes: barbarous monarchy, civilized monarchy, and free government (with its two subdivisions, limited monarchy and republic).
Hume on the Origin of Government. Related Links: Subject Area: Political Theory. Source: David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, edited and with a Foreword, Notes, and Glossary by Eugene F. Miller, with an appendix of variant readings from the 1889 edition by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, revised edition (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1987).
Oct 25, 2017 · A rich and suggestive summary of Hume’s political theory that pays attention to historical context and to Hume’s relations with earlier figures in the history of political thought. Provides a helpful synopsis of major trends in interpretation.
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