ABSTRACT
David Hume (171 1–76) is perhaps the most important philosopher of the eighteenth century, and his contribution to political philosophy is fertile. In these extracts from his essay (published 1748), Hume criticizes those such as Locke who explain our allegiance to a political society in terms of a contract. Hume’s critique is at least in part historical, but also contains a famous thought experiment in which he compares residence in a country to remaining on a ship. In neither case, he suggests, can legitimate authority be deduced from the fact that the individual remains in the same place.
