Abstract:

Trust is a pervasive feature of our social lives. This fact hasn’t escaped the attention of game theorists, social and political scientists, economists, epistemologists and ethicists alike. Despite this, a unified conceptual analysis of trust has proved elusive. In this talk, I outline what I call the ‘standard view’ of trust, which holds that when A trusts B to φ, A necessarily believes that B is trustworthy with respect to φ’ing. I will then survey two of the strongest objections given against this view. Finally, I argue that my own positive account of trust, which takes the standard view as its foundation, is not vulnerable to these objections