Abstract
David Hume is the first philosopher to write a critique on the social contract theory. A large portion of his critique is that the social contract theory is ahistorical. I believe it to be the most interesting of his arguments because of the popularly expressed need for a social contract to be explicit from the authority and the subjects at both the government’s inception and throughout its lifespan. These claims are substantiated by history and the practical ways that governments were organized and enforced, especially in pre-written language societies. In the same breadth I believe that each of the social contract theorists Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau can respond to these critiques successfully, although differently
