Editing Property (section)

==== David Hume (18th century) ====

In contrast to the figures discussed in this section thus far [[David Hume]] lived a relatively quiet life that had settled down to a relatively stable social and political structure. He lived the life of a solitary writer until 1763 when, at 52 years of age, he went off to [[Paris]] to work at the British embassy.

In contrast, one might think to his polemical works on [[religion]] and his [[empiricism]]-driven [[philosophical skepticism|skeptical]] [[epistemology]], Hume's views on law and property were quite conservative.

He did not believe in hypothetical contracts or the love of humanity in general and sought to ground politics upon actual human beings as one knows them. "In general," he wrote, "it may be affirmed that there is no such passion in the human mind, as the love of mankind, merely as such, independent of personal qualities, or services, or of relation to ourselves." Existing customs should not lightly be disregarded because they have come to be what they are due to human nature. With this endorsement of custom comes an endorsement of existing governments because he conceived of the two as complementary: "A regard for [[liberty]], though a laudable passion, ought commonly to be subordinate to a reverence for established [[government]]."

Therefore, Hume's view was that there are property rights because of and to the extent that the existing law, supported by social customs, secure them.<ref>This view is reflected in the opinion of the [[United States Supreme Court]] in "[[United States v. Willow River Power Co.]]".</ref> He offered some practical home-spun advice on the general subject, though, as when he referred to [[avarice]] as "the spur of [[Private industry|industry]]," and expressed concern about excessive levels of taxation, which "destroy industry, by engendering despair."