Trust matters most from a modest political view bounded by human capacities

Evidence

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. It does so because within this perspective what happens to a human society does depend both on the intelligence and practical skill of at least some of its members and on the use they elect to make of their freedom of action. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1145

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘mole’s-eye’ political perspective versus retrospective views from above parallels the doctor’s wife’s ground-level sightedness in Blindness — she operates from precisely this capacity-bound view.