How To Be Trustworthy

Abstract

The book articulates and defends a core notion of trustworthiness as avoiding unfulfilled commitments. This is motivated via accounts of both trust and distrust in terms of perceived commitment. Avoiding unfufilled commitments is crucial both to practical trustworthiness, and to trustworthiness in speech; on this picture, assertion involves promising to speak truthfully, and simultaneously either keeping that promise or breaking it. Both assertion and the incurring of practical commitments are governed by competence norms, as well as norms of sincerity. So what should we do if we want to be trustworthy? Two perspectives are important: we need to act in line with our existing commitments, but in addition we need to approach potential new commitments with care. We can become untrustworthy by taking on too many—or over-challenging—commitments, no matter how well-meaning we are. Considered narrowly, trustworthiness typically directs us away from new commitments, but this creates significant costs both for ourselves and for those around us. Moreover, we cannot always avoid new commitments, and encounter uncertainty about how we become committed. We face obstacles to being trustworthy, and trustworthiness can direct us to act in ways which are ungenerous, or otherwise unlikeable. Moreover, those of us who live in challenging personal circumstances, whether through material impoverishment, poor health, social exclusion, or power imbalances, face greater obstacles to being trustworthy. This is compounded by the fact that such circumstances—and their impact on the pursuit of trustworthiness—are not always visible to other people.

Trust and the appreciation of art

“…Jones (1996, p. 6) suggests the truster is optimistic as to the trustee's good will, whereas Hardin (2002, p. 1) holds that the truster regards the trustee has having encapsulated the truster's interests into her own. An alternate understanding is provided by Hawley (2019, p. 9), where reliance involves acting as if the trustee will meet some commitment. Normativity : This is the criterion that takes trust above mere reliance by including something which gives trust normative weight. This is often a kind of reflexivity condition where the truster's reliance provides the trustee with a direct and compelling (but not indefeasible) reason to meet that reliance (Jones, 2012).…”

“…This is often a kind of reflexivity condition where the truster's reliance provides the trustee with a direct and compelling (but not indefeasible) reason to meet that reliance (Jones, 2012). In contrast, Hawley (2019) holds trust to involve the belief that the trustee has a commitment, and it is that commitment which lends the trust its normative weight.…”

“…Accounts of trust standardly present trust as concerned with how the trustee will act. For example, Hawley (2019, p. 9) frames trust as involving the belief that the trustee will meet her commitments, whereas Jones (1996, p. 4) requires that the trustee take the truster's reliance as a direct reason to act as relied upon. Art‐trust, by coming at the moment of appreciation, seems to come after the trustee has acted.…”

“…Social relations in turn are mediated by trust. Recent work in the epistemology of testimony has taken trust to illuminate how people interact and gain knowledge from each other (for prime examples see Faulkner, 2011; Hawley, 2019). In this paper, we render a similar analysis to art appreciation.…”

The fragile tenets of trust

“…Indeed, trust binds or makes firm our uncertain will to a certainty that we do not yet possess. It is a leap in the dark, the hope that someone's future behavior will be consistent with the expectations generated, even if we do not have absolute certainty (Hawley 2019). Trusting therefore implies freely accepting a risk that makes us vulnerable.…”