Sam Segal

Topic: Trust

Trust plays a crucial role in our interpersonal relationships and our ability to undertake complex activities with others. This class, broken into three parts, will survey some recent literature devoted to this topic. In the first we will investigate the metaphysical nature of trust. Is it a belief, an attitude, an emotion, or something else? We will ask what the relationship is between trust and trustworthiness; whether trust can be willed; and how trust interacts with individual agency. In the second we will investigate the rationality of trust. In particular we will consider how it is that trust or trusting relationships can provide, on the one hand, a valid reason for belief and, on the other, a valid reason to perform some action. In the third part we will draw on some of the insights hopefully gained in the first two to think about some related ethical issues such as epistemic injustice, forgiveness, and collective action. Authors may include: Richard Holton, Pamela Hieronymi, P.F. Strawson, and Annette Baier.