ABSTRACT
Having uncovered flaws in the conceptualization and definition of trust in contemporary theory, and mis-directed applications in the example of money, we need to explore alternative traditions in order to rethink the basic characteristics of political trust. G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche provide grounds for such an alternative. Neither gives prominence to trust in itself, but the Hegelian theories of mutual recognition and of ethical life within the state, and Nietzsche’s genealogy of the promissory animal, do inspire us to think differently about trust. This places trust in a historical and relational context of ongoing struggle, involving promising and forgiving. It helps us to view trust in dialectical terms, rather than as a natural capability or an individual response. It also makes it easier to comprehend trust and distrust as ‘cooperative’ rather than as opposites.
