Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
January 2023
Source
The Moral Psychology of Trust
URL with Digital Object Identifier
forthcoming
Abstract
We use feminist insights about institutional distrust to critique the most general and well-developed theory of distrust in philosophy—Katherine Hawley’s commitment account—and to learn from this exercise about what a feminist theory of distrust should be like. Though not designed to explain institutional distrust as we understand it, Hawley’s theory is meant to apply to people’s relationships with institutional representatives as well as to friendships or intimate relationships whose contours are shaped by informal institutional structures. It should therefore be able to explain the institutional distrust that is prevalent among socially marginalized people. However, we argue that the account falls short in this regard. At best, it needs revision or elaboration so that it can do this conceptual work.