Abstract
Enlightenment political thought deals with the same basic problems of order tackled by earlier writers. The principal shift, most notable in the Scottish Enlightenment, is from artificial and imposed order to more natural and spontaneous forms; Hobbes and Locke to Hume and Smith. Alongside this shift there is a move away from explicitly normative concerns towards a more empirically focused form of inquiry. Many eighteenth-century writers are more interested in analysing the nature and source of moral beliefs than in laying down a specific standard by which conduct must be judged. Thus we learn from Hume the ‘measures of allegiance’ whereas Hobbes provides us with a proper theory of ‘political obligation’.
Keywords
Unintended Consequence Moral Belief Political Authority Contract Theory Invisible Hand
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