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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting subject, a tedious and difficult book., October 20, 2008
This review is from: Trust: Self-Interest and the Common Good (Hardcover)
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The subject of "Trust" is particularly relevant today especially since in the United States, we are a scant 2 weeks away from a Presidential election at the time this review was written. As I've watched the debates, the issue of trust is foremost on my mind. I continually ask myself, "Is this person telling the truth; can I trust what they are saying."
The world is embroiled in a financial market meltdown the likes of which few of us have ever experienced. Can we trust our governments to use the hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers money to deftly handle this financial crisis?
And yes, trust is implicit in personal relationships as well. Can you trust your best friend, wife, husband, child?
For these reasons I chose to read the book "Trust. Self-Interest and the Common Good" by Marek Kohn. The author is clearly intelligent and has formulated aome good ideas on this subject. However I felt like I was reading a college textbook the entire time I was reading this slim volume. It has been said that the writing style is "scholarly" and it most definitely is. This is not a book to pick up and expect to enjoy during a brief period of reading. This book requires dedication to read and some real concentration to breakdown the dense and difficult to read paragraphs into chuncks that you can process.
To be honest, I had some disagreements with the book beginning with the very first sentence in the Preface which reads, "Now that agreement has been reached about how humankind can best make a profitable living, with a single economic orthodoxy established around the world, an increasing number of scholars and commentators have turned their attention to the questions of how people can live well." Whew! not only is that one long sentence, but I don't agree with it. Please explain to me in what way "agreement has been reached about how humankind can best make a profitable living." If this has been agreed upon it is certainly news to me. Just look at the world right now and re-read that sentence. I can't trust the rest of the information in this book based on the very first sentence in the Preface.
It could be that some would find this particular book fascinating to read but sadly I did not. It was truly difficult to maintain interest in the subject matter because of the way in which it was written. I cannot recommend this book to most readers and although it it may have its niche I am compelled togive it a 2-star rating.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but Ramblind, Meditation, September 24, 2008
This review is from: Trust: Self-Interest and the Common Good (Hardcover)
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Trust is quite s stunning thing. On one hand, it is a necessary foundation for any society in which inerpersonal transactions are made. On the other, it is a most fragile disposition that often seems to fly in the face of self-interest. How did this social instinct develop in seemingly self-interested organisms? How do we maintain it when the possibility of cheating is always near? Under what conditions does it flourish or flounder?
These are the primary questions on which Marek Kohn expounds in his book Trust: Self-Interest and the Common Good. There is not much original argument in this book; instead, the author does a fair job of surveying the relevant literature from fields as disperate as philosophy, economics, political science and biology. We are introduced to, and think about, various views on trust: from Hobbes and Hume to Dawkins and (Francis) Fukuyama.
While there seems to be no overarching theme to the book, the cloest thing to it is the author's explanation of how trust - a social instinct - can be seen as a strategy of self-interest. Not only is it that one trusts generally only when one has reason to do so (or, negatively, avoids skepticism unless there is reason for it). Also, trust is integral to self-interest by allowing teams and communities to form in which individuals can find strangth in numbers, interacting with others while avoiding the burden of having to watch one's back.
This idea is nothing new, of course. Anyone familiar with group selection theory or Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is familiar with the arguments that trust may have self-interested roots. Kohn goes on to explore relevant literature on the conditons under which trust is helped and harmed. Trust, for instance, is tightest in smaller, more homoegenous communities and weakest in large, disperate areas (which is why it is generally families that have the tightest bonds.
Kohn's book is fairly interesting and will certainly be a good read for those not familiar with the current thoughts about trust from fields like sociobiology and game theory. Kohn explains various thinkers ideas clearly and with plenty of good examples. (For those wanting a more thorough treatment of a touched-on subject, Kohn provides a "further reading" list.) For those hoping for original insights, Kohn's book might be an interesting read, but not much more than a survey.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I wanted to like this book, October 31, 2008
This review is from: Trust: Self-Interest and the Common Good (Hardcover)
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I am a facilitator by trade and often deal with groups of elected officials who have trust issues. I see every day how a lack of trust destroys the relationships between members of these boards and keeps them from operating effectively and am always on the lookout for some insight into how to help them in all of this. When I first saw this book I really believed it would impart some epiphany that would get me to a better place professionally.
Well, I'm disappointed. Written by a British Professor, there is just too much jargon for me. I did get glimmers of insight - the idea of Trust as being "transactional", but it hurt my brain too much to read this book to the end. After reading the first chapter three times, I had to put it down. It is just plain written way over my head.
I have since bought "the Speed of Trust" by Stephen M. R. Covey and have been told that one is probably a better book for those of us trying to build trust in small groups. We'll see. I will try to finish this book, mainly because I never like to put a book down once I start it, but I'm going to have to give this one a little shelf time before I try again.
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