Xin : being trustworthy

• Main Author: Sung, Winnie
• Other Authors: School of Humanities
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::Philosophy; Trustworthiness; Confucian Moral Psychology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144891
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This essay analyses the Confucian conception of xin 信, an attribute that broadly resembles what we would ordinarily call trustworthiness. More specifically, it focuses on providing an analysis of the psychology of someone who is xin and highlighting a feature of the Confucian conception of trustworthiness, namely, the trustworthy has to ensure that there is a match between her self-presentation and the way she is. My goal is not to argue against any of the existing accounts of trustworthiness, but to draw on Confucian insights to shed light on features of trustworthiness that are overlooked in current discussions. I hope to show that the Confucian conception of trustworthiness emphasises more on how the trustworthy actively tries to make sure another’s dependency on her is not unwarranted, rather than how the trustworthy responds to the trustor.