The ethical view of trust only endorses trust when it is unnecessary

Evidence

It is precisely in regard to this problem that the ethical view of trust proves inadequate. It looks for an answer to the question under what circumstances one ought to trust, and arrives at the conclusion that, while in human society trust is an ethical command, one should not place trust blindly but only where it is earned. Thus the problem of trust is transformed into a cognitive problem, despite the fact that it has its roots precisely in inadequate cognitive capacity. This ‘solution’, therefore, could be formulated thus: confer trust when there is no need for it. The real problem, however, is trust which is unjustified and which yet justifies itself and so becomes creative. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 281

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The aphorism ‘confer trust when there is no need for it’ and the creative, self-justifying notion of unjustified trust is a dense, paradigm-shifting point resisting one-sentence summary.
• XREF: Directly relevant to Stevens’s trust in Lord Darlington that was never ‘earned’ on the ethical view yet justified itself — the core of the Ishiguro analysis.