Americans are living through a social crisis. We can see that in everything from vicious partisan polarization to rampant culture-war resentments to the isolation, alienation and d
We may need trust, but trusting often seems hard and risky. Every day we read of untrustworthy action by politicians and officials, by hospitals and exam boards, by companies and s
Trust in trustworthy people to do their more or less willing and more or less competent bit in some worthwhile cooperative enterprise whose benefits are fairly shared among all the
Trust is important, but it is also dangerous. It is important because it allows us to depend on others—for love, for advice, for help with our plumbing, or what have you—especially
This entry offers a taxonomy of accounts of trust and trustworthiness organized along two axes. The first concerns the attitude or stance that an account takes trust to be, whether
The obvious reason why someone would think one can not trust anyone is the simple fact that all human beings are fallible and are thus liable to let one down, friends included. As
The story of the Good Samaritan is constantly being repeated. We can see this clearly as social and political inertia is turning many parts of our world into a desolate byway, even
The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anx
This is an important feature of personal and social relationships which brings benefits but also renders parties vulnerable. A trusts B if s/he has confidence that s/he can depend on B is some respect. At base it involves an expectation of reliability and in that sense can be used of materials and artifacts as well as of animals and people: trusting the water (not to be poisonous), trusting the bridge (not to collapse), trusting the dog (not to become violent), trusting the plumber (to do the work properly. But in its most significant uses it involves judging that someone has a moral quality of honesty, conscience, which one can depend upon and which ensures their reliability. The benefits of trust are obvious both practically and in building mutual relationships, but it also exposes parties to the risk of being let down or betrayed in which they may be worse off that than they would have been if they had not invested their trust. The topic has come to the fore in recent discussion of professional groups and social and political institutions with the exposure of abuses and scandals causing a crisis of (mis)trust.