An overview on trust and trustworthiness: individual and institutional dimensions

This article provides an overview on recent philosophical work on trust and trustworthiness, contained in the Special Issue of this Journal. The concepts of trust and trustworthiness are extremely useful in explaining personal connections between people, professional relationships (for example, the one between a carer and a health professional), as well as large-scale social phenomena such as the public's perception of science and new technologies. These concepts are undoubtedly complex and, according to some, partially evaluative or ‘thick’ in the metaethical sense – arguably, to trust and to be trustworthy are not simply descriptions but also imply positive judgements of a certain sort of attitude and attribute, respectively. As with any complex and likely thick concept, there is a danger that trust and trustworthiness (as well as distrust and untrustworthiness) will be defined, operationalized and used differently in different research areas or even depending on the individual study. This is one reason why it is always beneficial to examine these conceptual tools under the scrutiny of philosophical discussion in order to hone them for specific assignments.