DAVID HUME AND THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
CONVENTION, CUSTOM, AND THE LIMITS OF CONSENT
12 January 2026
1. The Problem Hume Was Trying To Solve
David Hume was sceptical of grand political theories.
Unlike Hobbes, Locke, or Rousseau, Hume was not trying to design the perfect foundation for political authority. He was trying to explain how societies actually function, without myth-making.
His question was blunt.
Do social contracts really exist, or are they comforting fictions?
2. Human Nature According To Hume
Hume’s view of human nature is pragmatic and unsentimental.
Humans are:
• Habit-driven
• Emotionally motivated
• Social by necessity
• Limited in reason
Reason, for Hume, is not the master of human behaviour.
It is the servant of the passions.
People do not organise societies through abstract rational agreement. They adapt, imitate, and follow precedent.
3. The State Of Nature: A Fiction, Not A Fact
Hume rejects the idea of a historical “state of nature”.
No society, he argues, was ever founded by individuals gathering to agree a contract. That story belongs to philosophy, not history.
Societies emerge gradually through:
• Family ties
• Custom
• Mutual advantage
• Shared expectations
Order grows organically, not contractually.
4. Government Without Consent
Hume is deeply sceptical of Locke’s idea of consent.
Most people:
• Are born into governments
• Never explicitly consent
• Have no realistic option to leave
Calling this consent stretches the term beyond recognition.
Obedience, in reality, is based on habit, necessity, and convenience.
5. Convention And Mutual Advantage
For Hume, social order rests on convention.
Rules concerning:
• Property
• Promise-keeping
• Justice
emerge because they are useful.
People follow them not because they are sacred, but because life is worse without them.
Justice is artificial, but indispensable.
6. Legitimacy Through Utility
Hume replaces moral legitimacy with practical legitimacy.
A government is justified if it:
• Maintains order
• Protects property
• Promotes stability
Authority persists because it works.
When it stops working, loyalty fades.
7. Authority And Opinion
Hume makes a crucial observation.
All government rests on opinion.
Force alone is never sufficient. Rulers depend on public acceptance, custom, and belief.
Power survives not through contracts, but through shared assumptions about legitimacy.
8. Change, Reform, And Caution
Hume is wary of radical political change.
Abstract reforms often destroy functioning institutions before better ones exist.
He favours:
• Gradual reform
• Respect for custom
• Skepticism toward political purity
Stability is fragile and easily lost.
9. Hume Compared To Hobbes, Locke, And Rousseau
Hobbes grounds authority in fear.
Locke grounds it in consent.
Rousseau grounds it in collective will.
Hume grounds it in habit and utility.
Where others construct systems, Hume observes behaviour.
He is less dramatic, and more realistic.
10. Hume In The Modern World
Hume’s influence is quiet but pervasive.
His ideas explain:
• Why states persist without consent
• Why revolutions are rare
• Why legitimacy survives hypocrisy
Modern politics speaks the language of contracts and rights, but operates on custom, inertia, and managed opinion.
Hume removes the romance.
There may be no social contract, only a shared understanding that life is better with order than without it.
For Hume, that is enough.
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