Customer Reviews

Trust: Self-Interest and the Common Good

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Marek Kohn's book, "Trust: Self-Interest and the Common Good," is a nice place to start thinking about the topic of trust. It is far from comprehensive, as it only weighs in at 133 short pages, but presents the reader with some interesting angles concerning trust. It draws from a variety areas, including philosophy, religion, sociology, economics, politics, and technology. It even has a brief discussion of Amazon.com and the trust element involved in customers rating merchandise!

I was able to read this book in a couple of hours, as it is well-written and has a nice flow. Potential readers need to be aware that "Trust" is more of a survey of the topic meant to springboard folks into further exploration of trust, as opposed to an in-depth study. That is not to say that the book is shallow. The author skillfully covers a lot of material in the book's 133 pages.

I particularly found the chapter on trust and politics interesting. Kohn examines the role of trust as it relates to various political systems, using specific examples and even drawing upon the philosophy of thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes. "Trust" certainly gives the reader some things to think about and further study.

Overall, "Trust" is a book that will interest both academics and casual readers. It may not contain anything groundbreaking, but it does provide food for thought in a manner that is organized and easy to read, while at the same time invites further exploration of the role of trust in society.

Short book about trust amongst people, written by academic, yet easy to grasp. Author explores meaning of trust from many different points of view. We first learn about the trust from our families; where as babies we place an unconditional trust in the hands of our parents. With evolution of computers we develop confidence into the experts who build error proof programs we rely on so much. Then there is trust towards God that for some is unattainable. How do we trust our government, politicians, the nation we are part of? Author is exploring various nations - homogenous and diverse and how those societies define the relationship amongst people who live within them; inside and outside of the nation's borders. Many of the theories author mentions in this book I always thought of as game theories, explore how trust can have different outcome(s) based on the level of trust as well as situation. What is amazing is the exploration of language and meaning of language. In some societies such as former socialist countries like East Germany and Czechoslovakia, language can be misleading and often lead to punishment, imprisonment or worse, if misread. Read this book if anything then to learn the real reason why any individual should be trustworthy and trusting - within the limits, of course. This is a great little book; lots of valuable references.

I tried so hard to get into this book, but it was painful to read. It was loaded with jargon...snore and worse still it makes some pretty overarching statements about how people in lower socioeconomic groups behave, which I frankly disagree with.
In the latter case, I really disagree with the idea that poor people trust less. I have found this is not true and it certainly does not account for the inter-reliance and interdependence observed in underground economies. People have to trust and depend on one another, even when situations are not always healthy, in order to stay alive. Having moved from poverty to the middle class, I find that middle class people trust less, because there is always the idea that one might slip down into poverty if one trusts the wrong person. Eliza Doolittle's father in Pygmalion called it "middle class morality". I think he was far more on point. This issue was really where I got hung up and I guess once I didn't trust the author, I couldn't get into the rest of his argument.
My guess is that people who have never experienced poverty will feel differently about the book, which is why I gave it the rating I did.

Trust
Self Interest and the Common Good
by Marek Kohn

This deceptively slim volume takes on a subject of surprising depth and complexity. Trust is a paradox, something that arises out of variety of competing agendas, something that flourishes in the most unlikely places. It is a factor in the quality of life which can not be overlooked in any assessment of the true worth of relationships ranging from those between individuals all the way up to society as a whole.

As Kohn's subtitle suggests, there is an inherent tension between self interest and the common good. The book is an exploration of the dynamics of that tension, one which leads to some surprising situations and some not necessarily obvious insights. It's a journey well worth embarking on, as the fluctuating nature of trust which we encounter in our modern world is a matter of great practical and philosophical import.

Trust does not happen in a vacuum; a solitary individual is not in a position to practice trust. Trust requires two or more parties and self interest complicates the issue. It is advantageous to be trusted, but to trust is to take a risk. There are gains to be had from engaging in trust - but also gains to be had from duplicity. Further, trust can be based on many things: history, expectations, pure calculation, and so on. Beyond that, trust is not an either/or proposition. It may be extended only under certain conditions and within limits.

Kohn uses a number of devices to examine the manifold nature of trust: thought experiments, actual experiments, examples from every day life, and examples from history. He employs them to flesh out the abstract discussions the subject invokes, the better to explain why and how trust does - or does not - obtain under a variety of conditions.

Along the way Kohn traverses the terrain of trust ranging from relations between individuals up to society in general, ponders the role of authority in trust, and how social capital leavens the mix. Game theory is brought in to illuminate how trust works from a rather different perspective, and Kohn shows how theory contrasts with real world experiences.

This is not a book to be read at one sitting; it is best taken in small bites - the better to assimilate the concepts being considered. Pop psychology, easy answers and glib assertions are not to be found here. It's a scholarly work that nonetheless is intended to be accessible. Kohn's motivation for undertaking this explication of the nature of trust was driven in part by the need for a better understanding of the subject in a world changing at an increasing rate. As society undergoes flux, trust is one of the increasingly strained mechanisms holding it together; it behooves us to pay attention to it.

This is not light entertainment - but may well prove to be a source of enlightenment for the reader willing to make the effort to understand what can be a pretty complex phenomenon. Challenging and engaging, Kohn's book is one worth reading and re-reading.

Trust me on this.

First, please make sure you understand what this book is before you buy it. If you want to build trust in your relationships and are looking for a self-help book along those lines, this is NOT it.

This book is a 133-page "exploratory essay" (that's the description on the jacket) on the topic of trust and the research into it. If you are a sociology student, or have a strong interest in the subject, this book may very well interest you.

I found a number of the ideas surveyed in this book interesting. But to be honest, I didn't really enjoy the book much, even though the topic is one I like. There were two things about the way the book was written which made reading it, for me, a bit tedious:
1. The book really is better thought of as a long essay. The author begins a chapter with a title and then meanders about for 20 pages. This may be just fine for many people, but I need more explicit structure in a book -- chapters appropriately divided into sections, and a clear flow between them. If you are going to read the book all at once, it may not matter as much; but if you read a few pages at a time, as I do, you may feel a need to re-orient yourself as he "explores" a topic.
2. The author somewhat overuses pronouns, which can make the text confusing. For example, one sentence in the book reads "The science writer Matt Ridley proclaims its relationship to trust as ...." What does "its" refer to? Science? No, back to the previous sentence; it contains the nouns "state," "importance," and "equality." Ah -- "its" refers to "equality." But having to puzzle out ambiguous references quickly erodes my enthusiasm to read a book. At times the author even uses pronouns to refer to nouns in the previous paragraph, something I think most writers avoid.

If you do get this book, be forewarned about the discussion of "The Enlightenment Trail" on page 50. The name is a reference to a concept introduced in "Trust Within Reason," of which you can find an excerpt online at Google Books. Information that should be presented as a 7 by 3 table is given in a rather tedious paragraph instead; why not just give us a table? But the real gotcha is that if you try to follow the logic as presented in this book, as you get near the end of the explanation you'll realize that it doesn't quite make sense. It turns out that Kohn's book gives a wrong value for one of the pubs. Use this table to understand that material. (A and E are Adam and Eve's ratings for the pub)

A E Pub
- - ----------------------
1 0 The Rational Choice
0 2 The Social Contract
3 1 The Foole
2 4 The Sensible Knave
5 3 The Extra Trick (not 5 4)
4 5 The Triumph of Reason

You might want to check out the "Trust Within Reason" excerpt to better understand what this book is about.

Given the world-wide financial turmoil at the time of publishing, this book seemed well-timed. What could be more apropos given the key role that breakdown of trust between banks has played in the freezing of the credit markets?

And so I cracked open this slim hardback and started reading the preface: "Now that agreement has been reached about how humankind can best make a profitable living, with a single economic orthodoxy established around the world..." Ooops.

This is an example of the comfortable western European viewpoint of the author in this brief skate across the issues around the concept of trust. Though the book ventures further afield to consider how differences in race and culture affect trust, the style and author's frame of reference made me feel like I was being lectured over tea by a comfortably-off British academic.

Overall, I found the book mildly interesting, but can't imagine explaining it or attempting to relate it to others. Part of the reason is the lack of organization of the text, which suggests the goal of the book is not to give the reader an understanding of the subject, but instead to impress the author's superior knowledge of the subject area.

The style is that of an essay in 7 chapters. Several examples of trust are used throughout the book, such as that between enemy soldiers during world war one. The essay format leads to a feeling of unsettled incompleteness as the examples are never explored as a whole, diluting their value and impact. Adding to the feeling of a rambling text, the boundaries between chapters seem somewhat arbitrary.

In conclusion, this book provided a brief diversion and suggested some new ways to look at issues of trust, but I can't imagine remembering what it was about in 6 months' time.

Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:
**** Recommended with warm fuzzies.

This was an easy, not-too-deeply-academic, read into the concept of trust as explored from a variety of psychological, sociological, political perspectives. For me, it was certainly a very timely subject matter at a time when the current credit crisis in the U.S. involves a lack of trust from banks and lending institutions, with banks not trusting each other and not trusting borrowers in general. Also with this year being a presidential election year in the U.S., how much we trust what various candidates are telling us is very much applicable to these same concepts of trust.

Along with their highly-respected dictionaries, Oxford University Press publishes a large number of great academic and professional books and journals. This is quite possibly one of their smaller books and it made for a quick and easy-to-understand reading. It is more like an topical university-level survey of the concept of trust between humans, rather than either an in-depth analysis of the subject or a self-help book for people wanting to learn how to build more trust from people. My main quibble, and the reason for rating this book 4 stars instead of 5 stars, is that it tends to digress and veer off into different directions sometimes, at times not having enough focus and cohesiveness to give me "Aha" epiphanies, and tending to dribble out philosophical contemplations of trust in bits and pieces.