Source: Law & Liberty
by Graham McAleer
“By focusing on Hume’s ideas about why we enter association and follow norms, [Max] Skjönsberg nicely puts in relief how Hume’s theory of historical association differs from the rationalism of the social contract theories of Hobbes and Locke: a motif of slow, uncertain growth marks Hume’s idea, whilst the mood of a blueprint marks social contract theory. Skjönsberg’s portrait also delivers a populist Hume which, I think, is something of a mischaracterization. Like other members of the Scottish Enlightenment, Hume makes establishment basic to governance.” (08/12/26)