Abstract

The respective rejections of contractarian explanations and justifications of political allegiance by hume and hegel are outlined. The difference between these rejections is located in a change in conceptualizations of the relationship between human nature and history and this is illustrated by a discussion of herder. In consequence, Hegel does not reproduce hume's arguments because hume's own rejection, Both historical and philosophical, Of contractarianism was premised on the very principles that hegel rejects in his theoretical rejection of rousseau's theoretical reformulation of the notion