Ethics Untangled
Ethics Untangled is a series of conversations about the ethical issues that affect all of us, with academics who have spent some time thinking about them.
Ethics Untangled is also the long-form online presence of IDEA, edited by Danielle Bromwich and Luke Brunning, where we make room for longer interviews, staff and student profiles, articles and other forms of content.
Both are brought to you by IDEA, the Ethics Centre, a specialist unit for teaching, research, training and consultancy in Applied Ethics at the University of Leeds. IDEA offers Masters programmes in Healthcare Ethics and Applied and Professional Ethics, research degrees and consultancy services.
The Ethics Untangled podcast is edited by Mark Smith at Leeds Media Services.
Music is by Kate Wood.
Ethics Untangled
62. Can organisations be trustworthy? With Matt Clark
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Can organisations themselves be trustworthy, or is trustworthiness only a quality of individuals? This question matters for how we think about public institutions, businesses, and charities – and about the responsibilities they bear when people rely on them. Philosopher Matt Clark joins me to unpack what trustworthiness means, what kind of control and awareness an organisation would need in order to count as trustworthy, and why values matter in this context. Along the way, we discuss examples such as the Metropolitan Police and sketch what a genuinely trustworthy organisation might look like.
Here's what Matt suggested for further reading:
- Katherine Hawley. 2017. 'Trustworthy Groups & Organisations.' In P. Faulkner & T. W. Simpson (eds.), The Philosophy of Trust (Oxford University Press) https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198732549.003.0014
- Matt Bennett. 'Trusting Groups.' Philosophical Psychology, 37:1, 196-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2023.2179478
- C. Thi Nguyen. 2022. 'Trust as an Unquestioning Attitude.' In Tamar Szabó Gendler (ed.), Oxford Studies in Epistemology, Vol. 7 (Oxford University Press) https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192868978.003.0007
Hawley expresses scepticism about the possibility of trust in groups, Bennett provides a different argument to Matt's on why trusting groups is acceptable, and Nguyen is referenced by Matt in the podcast as having a different view of trust.
Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.
As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.
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