Trust is a distinctly modern concept tied to risk-awareness.

Evidence

Adam Seligman (1997, 13–15) claims that trust as we know it is a strictly modern concept because it arises out of strictly modern conditions. This is a perhaps Platonic stipulation in its own right. Niklas Luhmann (1988, 96) makes a similar claim: “Trust comes with the discovery or reconceptualization of life as involving risk in early modern times.” — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 899

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to Luhmann’s familiarity-vs-trust distinction that anchors the reader’s stated analysis — this is the clearest bridge between Hardin and Luhmann in the chapter. Also resonates with Giddens on risk society.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does Saramago’s blindness epidemic presuppose modern trust in a way that pre-modern conditions would not? The reader’s integration could hinge on whether the novel’s collapse depends on a modern conception of risk.
• DEFINE: Defines trust as a historically contingent concept requiring risk recognition, not a universal human condition.
• SEED: Potential essay: whether pre-modern societies had anything like trust, or only reliance on predictability — and what that means for Hardin’s encapsulated-interest account.