David Hume
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David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian and is one of the most important thinkers in the Scottish Enlightenment. [More on David Hume]
David Hume's contribution to the notion of spontaneous order
Hume advocates the concept of spontaneous order by arguing that all human knowledge comes to us through our perceptions or experiences: "By the term impression, then, I mean all our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will.” He considers that it is our experiences that model our behavior and not our reason. It is impossible, Hume argues, for a pure and unaided human reason to know the required legal and moral norms of a social order (Literature of review). Hume argues that any improvements of men "must rest not on a utopian reformation of the manners of mankind nut on obervations and experience of those rules that best serve men's more or less changing needs" (Literature of Review 22).
Rules, in Hume’s opinion, are not deliberately established. Rather, they are socially adopted as the benefit of respecting a certain cooperative behavior is larger then the cost of not doing so (25). Hume considers that as humans have limited altruism, it is very important for property rights to be implemented, as their adoption is in the public's best interest. However, this cannot be achieved through rationalist calculations (26).
Just like Adam Smith, Hume argues in favor of stablishing property rights, as private property is a limited good. Smith actually write in the The Wealth of Nations that Hume was the only writer so far to have noticed the connection between the market and order and good government(27). Hume also advocated the unequal distribution of property,as perfect equality would result in impoverishment since people would no longer thrift and diligently work to better themselves(28).
