Modern trust is vested in abstract capacities, not individuals

Evidence

Trust is therefore involved in a fundamental way with the institutions of modernity. Trust here is vested, not in individuals, but in abstract capacities. Anyone who uses monetary tokens does so on the presumption that others, whom she or he never meets, honour their value. But it is money as such which is trusted, not only, or even primarily, the persons with whom particular transactions are carried out. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 72

Categorization

• XREF: Directly maps onto the reader’s stated project: Stevens places trust in the ‘greatness’ of Lord Darlington’s household as an abstract institution rather than in persons. This is the theoretical crux the reader wants. — connects to: Modern society needs non-personal trust beyond what individuals provide; Trust in abstract systems is tacit routine, not conscious choice. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 222; Pre-modern trust is anchored in local place rather than abstract systems. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 245 (+11 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: This is the load-bearing distinction in the reader’s entire thesis — the abstract-capacity trust that makes possible both institutional efficiency and, when the institution lacks moral grounding, total ethical abdication.

Related

• Modern society needs non-personal trust beyond what individuals provide (similarity 0.91)
• System trust cannot supply the mutuality that personal trust provides (similarity 0.86)
• Personal trust becomes system trust under civilized conditions (similarity 0.86)
• System trust rests on expectations that most won’t test the system (similarity 0.85)
• Trust in experts is trust in impersonal systems, not in individuals (similarity 0.85)
• Trust in abstract systems is tacit routine, not conscious choice. (similarity 0.85)
• System trust underwrites ontological security but yields no psychological reward (similarity 0.85)
• Institutionalized money trust replaces countless individual acts of personal trust (similarity 0.85)
• Modernity’s trust requires the awareness that human activity is socially created, not divinely given. (similarity 0.85)
• Pre-modern trust is anchored in local place rather than abstract systems. (similarity 0.84)
• System trust survives individual disappointments that would destroy personal trust (similarity 0.84)
• System trust produces a compulsion to trust a system one cannot correct (similarity 0.84)
• Trust is confidence expressing faith in others’ probity or in abstract principles. (similarity 0.83)
• Giddens describes how trust in abstract systems develops as ‘faceless commitments,’ yet notes relations of trust are always ambivalent because confidence is needed amid fundamental ignorance of… (similarity 0.83)
• Openly negotiated interdependence undermines trust that existing systems breed silently (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Trust in abstract systems is tacit routine, not conscious choice. #expands (0.80) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 222
• Pre-modern trust is anchored in local place rather than abstract systems. #qualifies (0.70) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 245
• Trust is an attitude transferable to no other objects or people #contradicts (0.70) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 155
• Trust presupposes a structured environment supplied by the existence of other systems. #expands (0.65)
• System trust cannot supply the mutuality that personal trust provides #complicates (0.60) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 272
• System trust rests on trusting that others also trust #expands (0.60) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 261
• External trust depends on learning and system cover, not internal structural reasons. #expands (0.60)
• Modernity’s trust requires the awareness that human activity is socially created, not divinely given. #expands (0.60) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 89
• Personal trust becomes system trust under civilized conditions #expands (0.55) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 257
• System trust is easier to acquire but harder to control than personal trust #qualifies (0.50)