| Phi 110 Fall 2015 |
|
(Site navigation is not working.) |
Tues. 12/8: pp. 231-247
Thurs. 12/10: pp. 247-260
Baier’s serves as a modern example of a focus on the ethical evaluation of relations among people (rather than one people as individuals or their actions). It also provides an example of a common style of philosophical discussion about ethics, a consideration of examples leading up to an analysis of a concept. You can think of the paper as falling into three parts.
• In the first (pp. 231-240), she develops her basic analysis of trust, which is stated briefly near the top of p. 240. Notice its key elements: it is a three-place relation (A trusts B with valued thing C, see p. 236), the idea of “caring for” points to reliance on good will (see pp. 234f), and it involves granting discretionary powers (see pp. 237-239).
• The second part of the article (pp. 240-253) concerns trust relations involving unequal power in the parties to the relationship (and also ones involving some degree of intimacy). (Notice that at least the first of these features is found also in Mencius’ key relationships—between parents and children, older and younger siblings, rulers and subjects.) The focus of this section is the contrast between trust relations of this sort and the ones established by contracts or promises more generally.
• The last part of the article (pp. 253-260) then concerns the evaluation of trust relationships. Her main discussion of this is on pp. 255-257, with a compact statement on pp. 255f. You can find a comparison of her “expressibility test” with requirements for the acceptability of contractual agreements on p. 257.