Of the Original Contract

David Hume (1711–1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who may be seen as one of the first of the great myth busters. In his writings on politics, Hume confronted myths head on, testing them on several levels of analysis. No better example of this can be found than in “Of the Original Contract,” first published in 1748. In this essay, Hume argues against the idea that there has ever been an explicit social contract that founded and justified government. With a new foreword by Timothy Wirkman Virkkala.