Social Theory and Practice

Volume 37, Issue 4, October 2011

Theresa Weynand Tobin
Pages 599-628

The Relevance of Trust for Moral Justification

In this paper, I argue that relationships of trust are often necessary for moral justification. Even if a moral claim is likely to be true, it may not be adequately justified, and thus may not have normative force, unless those who are to accept the claim have good reason to believe that the one entering the claim is a trustworthy moral interlocutor. The complexity of moral knowledge coupled with differences among people in moral experience, capacities for moral perception, and reasoning abilities creates relations of epistemic dependence that make trust necessary in order to achieve adequate moral justification.

Usage and Metrics
Dimensions
PDC