ABSTRACT
While Edmund Burke (1729-1797) has usually been regarded as the leading philosopher of political conservatism, David Hume (1711-1776) was, by general admission, a more profound philosopher, and his Empiricism is the logical basis of the Conservative creed. Moreover, he did not, like Burke, live into an age when revolution threatened the foundations of society, and when political conservatism was therefore a natural reaction to contemporary conditions. Hume’s conservatism was founded on the more permanent basis of logical empiricism and utilitarian ethics, although it was no doubt encouraged to some extent by the stable political conditions under which he lived.
