A political perspective on human life must be restricted to human capacities

Evidence

Much of human life, plainly, is shaped by forces which no human beings at all at the time of happening genuinely understand; and even if a few select human beings did happen to comprehend those forces, they could scarcely significantly affect them. There are important cognitive perspectives on human life (for humans themselves, often perspectives of a retrospective kind) which are views from well above or beyond politics. A political perspective upon human life, if it is to be coherent, must necessarily be more modest. It is a view focused upon, and restricted by, human capacities: by the possible consequences of possible intended actions. It is within this (world historically, somewhat mole’s-eye) view of human circumstance that the incidence of well-founded or ill-founded trust occupies such a key position. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1145

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘mole’s-eye’ political viewpoint contrasts with retrospective God’s-eye views — parallels the Saramago blindness analysis where trust becomes legible only within a strictly human, capacity-bound perspective. — connects to: Political responsibility requires abandoning the fantasy of escaping human forms of life — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 356