The Object of TrustDr Yonatan Shemmer (University of Sheffield)
April 21, 2016, 1:15pm - 2:45pm
Philosophy Programme, St Mary's University, Twickenham
Senior Common Room
St Mary's University
Twickenham TW1 4SX
United Kingdom
Organisers:
Peter Fossey
St Mary's University, Twickenham
Topic areas
Details
Abstract:
Existing accounts of trust misdiagnose the nature of the relation of trust as they underdetermine the truster’s expectation of the trustee. Trust, it is commonly agreed, is a discretionary relation; what one trusts the trustee to do can never be fully specified. Even when trust is initiated by an explicit request, there are always circumstances in which it is left open to the trustee to decide what she has been trusted to do. Nevertheless, in such circumstances, the trustee must be guided by some principle or other. For sure, if she is to prove trustworthy, the trustee must choose in line with the truster's express desires. But discretionary situations are precisely those in which the truster's express desires leave more than one option open. Several theoretical alternatives present themselves: a. To be guided by one's own (the trustee's) preferences. b. To be guided by the demands of morality. c. To be guided by the aim of maximizing the truster's well-being. d. To be guided by what the truster would have wanted if she deliberated about the discretionary circumstances. I explore these alternatives and argue that the fourth one best captures the demands of trust. I illustrate this view by considering trust to make decisions on one's behalf in 'end-of-life' situations.
About the Speaker:
Yonatan Shemmer has completed his first degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his PhD at Stanford University, California. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield where he has been teaching for the last ten years. He has edited with Jimmy Lenman “Constructivism about Practical Reason”, and has written articles about desire, desire control, autonomy, disagreement and rationality. He has recently been wondering why philosophers are obsessed with moral objectivity but the only answers he can come up with are not particularly flattering.
Existing accounts of trust misdiagnose the nature of the relation of trust as they underdetermine the truster’s expectation of the trustee. Trust, it is commonly agreed, is a discretionary relation; what one trusts the trustee to do can never be fully specified. Even when trust is initiated by an explicit request, there are always circumstances in which it is left open to the trustee to decide what she has been trusted to do. Nevertheless, in such circumstances, the trustee must be guided by some principle or other. For sure, if she is to prove trustworthy, the trustee must choose in line with the truster's express desires. But discretionary situations are precisely those in which the truster's express desires leave more than one option open. Several theoretical alternatives present themselves: a. To be guided by one's own (the trustee's) preferences. b. To be guided by the demands of morality. c. To be guided by the aim of maximizing the truster's well-being. d. To be guided by what the truster would have wanted if she deliberated about the discretionary circumstances. I explore these alternatives and argue that the fourth one best captures the demands of trust. I illustrate this view by considering trust to make decisions on one's behalf in 'end-of-life' situations.
About the Speaker:
Yonatan Shemmer has completed his first degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his PhD at Stanford University, California. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield where he has been teaching for the last ten years. He has edited with Jimmy Lenman “Constructivism about Practical Reason”, and has written articles about desire, desire control, autonomy, disagreement and rationality. He has recently been wondering why philosophers are obsessed with moral objectivity but the only answers he can come up with are not particularly flattering.
Registration
No
Who is attending?
No one has said they will attend yet.
Will you attend this event?