Hume, reform, and the perfect Commonwealth : an attempt to show that Hume's "Idea of a perfect Commonwealth" ought to be taken seriously

Eliopoulos, Nicholas

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Hume, reform, and the perfect Commonwealth : an attempt to show that Hume's "Idea of a perfect Commonwealth" ought to be taken seriously

Date

1996

Authors

Eliopoulos, Nicholas

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to show that Hume's 1752 essay "Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth" ought to be taken seriously in the sense that Hume wrote this essay in the hope that the republican form of government it describes and recommends, a republican form of government "modelled with masterly skill" (Essays 528), would one day be established in Britain.