The terms nature and artifice date back to the origins of western political thought.
Historically political philosophers have debated using either nature or artifice to explain
the foundations of politics. This book demonstrates it is possible to reconcile nature and
artifice using the arguments presented by the great political philosopher of the Scottish
Enlightenment David Hume. Through a careful analysis of Hume's political writings it traces
how a definition of politics as nature and artifice must be understood in an historical
context.
