Trust and Applied Ethics

Masaki Sugita


0. Introduction

We are conducting research on “reconstruction of business ethics". In the applied ethics field, we have studied bioethics, environmental ethics and information ethics; however we have not studied business ethics enough in Japan. Some business scholars have studied business ethics; however few philosophers have studied it. So we aim at studying it from a philosophical point of view. This year is the final year of the project. We published the mid report in the second year, and had a symposium in Korea. We are planning to have one in China this year, and would like to also have one in the US in order to raise an alarm over the American standard.

I think education is important in the present society as a breakthrough for problems. The other day, we had a symposium on general education in our academic society. I think the general education in present society is crippling and Japan is facing its crisis. Now cultural activities are taken over by economic activities, as are political activities. So we have to study and establish business ethics and have fair economical activities.


1. Trust and Applied Ethics

Today we will discuss the following themes,

  1. Why we need trust.
  2. Why trust become impaired
  3. How we can secure trust
  4. What is trust

I am not sure how far we can resolve the economical problems in the present society with philosophical or ethical discussion. This may be a weak point of philosophy, however on the other hand the advantage of philosophy is, as Socrates said, we can openly say that we know nothing.

In the Today's Mainichi news paper, we had the following items:

  1. Secret discount of 1,000,000,000 yen
  2. Misconduct in research fund in Waseda Univ.;
  3. Ministry of Finance stops distributing 10,600,000,000 yen for misconduct in the medical school of Yamagata Univ.
  4. Fabricated data ordered by the professor in the medical school, Yamagada Univ

Misconduct occurs where money exists. Again, I don't know if we can resolve the problems with philosophical or ethical discussion. In order to prevent misconduct, we may have to conduct surveillance which may cost more than the price of misconduct. We may not be able to answer the question how to prevent misconduct with philosophy.

Last month, the newspaper reported that 80% of the people agreed with the opinion that human relationships are becoming attenuated in present society. Thus, people are feeling that others are not reliable.

In “Spirited Away", Chihiro's mother says “don't draw along me, Chihiro".

A friend of mine who are teaching piano mentioned that kids nowadays could not use a pencil in the right way or chopsticks either. This shows poor education in the home. This is the reality in present Japanese society.


2. Why we need trust.

Why do we need trust?

  1. protect one's benefit ex. life, property
  2. avoidance of crisis or risk.
  3. Trust can work between strangers
  4. continuing trust←prosperity
  5. The definition of trust by Anthony Giddens)

The background of needing trust:

  1. A person possesses (sustainment, acceptance)←an animal does not possess.
  2. Identify one by what he or she possesses.
  3. Possession is separable from the possessor
  4. Exchange and efficiency(exchangeable because it is separable.)
  5. Establishment of markets (People exchanged by robbing before the establishment of markets)
  6. Self-motion of market, market our of control(desire for possessions)

In the animal world, the preservation of species was realized by survival of the strong. Only in the human world, do we have a system in which the weak also can survive. Human beings invented the concept of human rights.

Ethics is one of the rules. Ethics contributes to keep order of the community and to reduce the stress and troubles in the community. We don't have rules as natural instincts, so we, human beings, have to learn rules.

We need freedom as a basis of rules. Only human beings have free will. Since we have freewill, we have to take responsibility.

How can we let people keep rule?


3. Why trust become impaired

  1. Temptation to break rules.(Randall Collins demonstrated a person who breaks a rule will win a game with using a case(Sociological Insight). In the case, he showed 4 patterns for the case of game between 2 persons:1)Both A and B keep the rule, 2)Only A breaks the rule. 3) Only B breaks the rule. 4)Both A and B break the rule. He concluded that the expectation value with breaking rule is higher than keeping rules. Then why do people keep rules? It seems irrational. What makes people act irrationally? As Hegel said, people keep rules because individuals are essentially parts of community? Cosmopolitanism VS Communitarianism? On the other hand, if the expectation value with breaking rules is higher than keeping rules, people will not quit breaking rules.
  2. Expanding Society; People who don't know each other
    Development of division of labor causes the situation that people don't know each other directly in the society. Only 200,000 years passed after Homo sapiens appeared on the earth. 10,000 thousand years have passed since agriculture began. Surprisingly, only 5000 years after human beings began agriculture, they built the pyramids! Pyramids could be built with huge political power. Huge political power came with huge wealth. People began to live around pyramids and built a city. In the city, people did not know each other directly.
    10000 years ago (emergence of agriculture)→5000 years ago (emergence of pyramid) →emergence of cities→2500 years ago (emergence of religion and philosophy)
  3. How to make people keep rules in a situation where no one is watching
    This is very important question in thinking of ethics. Ethics is what makes people keep rules in a situation where no one is watching
  4. Trust as a root of ethics

4. How have people kept trust?

4-1. How have people kept trust ?

  1. Difference between human being and animals; Society; Freedom and Responsibilities; Words and Time
    Trust is kept by behaving according to agreement. Agreement is made with words. What is the role of words in trust? Penalty(Power, Seken Public):Theory by Hobbs. Seken public works effective in Japan. In Japan, they had a culture that ostracized a person who broke the norms in their community. It also seemed to work in Jewish Society.
  2. Religion:The role of religion is to provide an explanation to absurdity (To think of the social role of religion as conflict is the essence of religion).
  3. Emergence of Profession and Experts←Development of division of labor
    Religion was enervated in the modern society. Instead of religion, professions emerged.
  4. From consciousness to a Monitoring Camera.
    We are facing a crisis of consciousness. One's consciousness makes the person obey rules. Ex) Spiriting Away Consciousness was a monitoring camera in one's mind, and now the camera is externalized. Civilization has an externalization function.

4-2. Fundamental Misunderstandings on Trust

Misunderstandings:
  1. We can conclude contracts without God (the third parties)
  2. Human beings act rationally←In capitalistic society, people act only through influence peddling without trust.
  3. People feel happiness with expanding their prosperity.

☆After the emergence of market, people believed from 1 to 3.


5. What is trust?

5-1. The concept of trust

You believe1 that the other2 will respond to your expectation3.

You can define many kinds of trust with these 3 elements.

5-2. Components of Trust

Yamagishi shows components of trust as follows:

  1. What we trust: a person (specified or not specified, profession), group, society, system (money, language), things, abstract objects (win, mind, law, etc.), nature, gods, self, no objects, and so on.
  2. Capability, intention
  3. With/without foundation, conscious/subconscious, high/low degree
I think they may not be enough.

Secondly, Yamagishi says: 1)trust in nature is more important than trust in society, 2) will is more important than ability, 3)personality is more important than interest. I feel that Yamagishi's idea is too narrow.

5-3. What does trust give us?

  1. security
  2. dependence
  3. confidence

5-4. What is the most basic foundation of trust?

A hint:Trust does not contribute simply to guarding property but also life.

  1. Human as a part of nature―sympathy, compassion, love
  2. Is a creation programmed to have trust in its gene level?
  3. Cousiousness:Human has self-cousiousness.
  4. Beginning of possessions and explosion of the market.

6. Conclusion

What should we do now?

We should have role models for behaving morally in order for people to maintain trust. But in the present world, we don't have good role models in present society, so people may not keep trust and believe influence peddling.

To keep trust, we should have ability, foresight, and dignity. To be a good person is not equal to being a trustworthy person. To be a good person means just not to be a bad person.

What we need today? The most important is education, especially education in philosophy. The aim of philosophy isn't to learn a lot of knowledge but to understand its essence.




Q&A:

1. Philosophical Speculation on responsibilities and reliability of scientists and engineers

Q:The object of our project is to explore the responsibilities and reliability of scientists and engineers. I would like to ask about philosophical speculation on responsibilities and reliability of scientists and engineers

A: What do I think of professions? In present society, trust on scholarship and truth has been lost. Trust in education has been lost, as well. This is a bad effect of cultural relativism. I have no idea how we should solve it.

2. How can we apply the knowledge of old philosophers to the problems today?

Q: The present society is very different from the past one owing to the development of science and technology. So, I am afraid that the knowledge and insight by the old philosophers is not applicable to the problems in the present society. How can we apply the knowledge and insights to the problems today? Or should we develop new knowledge?

A. Philosophers in each era invented the newest knowledge at their time. So we should not apply their knowledge directly to the problems of present society, but should do some things as they did. What would Hegel do for the problems in the present society? He might establish a different philosophical system. To study the knowledge of past philosophers is not philosophy but philology of philosophy. We should not study philology of philosophy, but study philosophy. However the philosophical exploration in the present society falls into crisis. Lack of norms caused by cultural relativism. For example, in primary school, teachers let pupils act freely without thinking about norms. It is nonsense to let children who lack judgment to act freely.

3. Trust to Tokyo University

Q: Authority does not work in the present world. In Japan, the authority of and the trust to Tokyo University are lost, because a lot of misconduct happened in Tokyo University or with graduates of Tokyo University. What do you think about that?

A: I watched the TV program in which a professor of Tokyo Univ. and comedians were discussing liberal arts. The opinion of the comedians was clearer than the professor's. Terrible!! Where is culture in Japan?

4. Rules and Ethics

Q: You said that rules are ethics. The most basic rule is laws. I think laws and ethics are different. I think ethics exceeds laws. Laws are established by the power, however we can criticize the law with ethical point of view.

A: Rules are formed on some value. Rules in a narrow sense are as you mentioned. Rules I mentioned are a more broad sense. It is a value like thing which gives cosmos to the society

5. Asian VS Western

Q: You defined trust that a person believes the other will respond to your expectation. I feel that your definition of trust is too Asian. I think they are interested in how they can make other people believe them in Anglo-Saxon culture. What do you think about that?

A: There are two ways of thought on the relationship between society and a person. in Anglo-Saxon culture, people think that society is just a collection of persons. Society is just a name of the collection. In Asian culture, a person can be made an individual by society. Society has substantiality. East Asian people tend to think in the second way. Hegel did, too.

Q: In Japan, horizontal tunnels are used for the path to another world(ex. Spirited Away). In western world the path to another world is vertical (ex. Alice in the wonder land). In the vertical path, people don't move by their own will but are moved by gravity or God's power. In Japan, people have a relationship directly with each other, but in western world, each person has a relationship with God, and has a relationship with other people thorough God. Now is the crucial time for keeping Japanese culture.