----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- I think it's worth bearing in mind in any comparison of Hobbes and Hume that Hume had more than practical reasons for not emphasizing a debt to Hobbes. They were opponents on the key political-philosophical point of natural rights. For Hobbes, government was a way of "granting" rights and protecting naturally brutish humans from each other. For Hume, rights predate government and government's job is to guarantee and protect them; and, human nature is not so brutish, as humans are God's creatures with a moral nature. Buchanan et al. have a Hobbsian view of human nature. Jim Buchanan is quite forthcoming in that regard. Sam Bostaph ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]