What’s the most fundamental value?

 This is a Question of the Month in Philosophy Now (Issue 143, April/May 2021). I wrote it very quickly, almost on impulse in less than ½ hr, but I spent a lot of time polishing it.

The word ‘fundamental’ is key here: it infers the cornerstone or foundation upon which all other values are built. Carlo Rovelli, who is better known as a physicist than a philosopher, said in an online video that “we are not entities, we are relations”. And I believe this aphorism goes to the heart of what it means to be human. From our earliest cognitive moments to the very end of our days, the quality of our lives is largely dependent on our relationships with others. And, in that context, I would contend that the most important and fundamental value is trust. Without trust, honesty does not have a foothold, and arguably honesty is the glue in any relationship, be it familial, contractual or even between governments and the general public. 

 

Psychologists will tell you that fear and trust cannot co-exist. If someone, either as a child, or a spouse, is caught in a relationship governed by fear, yet completely dependent, the consequence will inevitably result in an inability to find intimacy outside that relationship, because trust will be corroded if not destroyed. 

 

Societies can’t function without trust: traffic would be chaos; projects wouldn’t be executed collaboratively. We all undertake financial transactions every day and there is a strong element of trust involved in all of these that most of us take for granted. Cynics will argue that trust allows others to take advantage of you, which means trust only works if it is reciprocated. If enough people take advantage of those who trust, then it would evaporate and everyone would suddenly dissemble and obfuscate. Relationships would be restricted to one’s closest family and wider interactions would be fraught with hidden agendas, even paranoia. But this is exactly what happens when governments mandate their citizenry to ‘out’ people who don’t toe the party line. 

 

Everything that we value in our relationships and friendships, be it love, integrity, honesty, loyalty or respect, is forfeit without trust. As Carlo Rovelli intimated in his aphoristic declaration, it is through relationships that we are defined by others and how we define ourselves. It is through these relationships that we find love, happiness, security and a sense of belonging. We ultimately judge our lives by the relationships we form over time, both in our professional lives and our social lives. Without trust, they simply don’t exist, except as fake.

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I once wrote on this topic before, in 2008. I deliberately avoided reading that post while I wrote this one. To be honest, I’m glad I did as it’s a much better post. However, this is a response to a specific question with a limit of 400 words. Choosing the answer was the easy part – it took seconds – arguing a case was more organic. I’ll add an addendum if it’s published.

Interestingly, 'trust' crops up in my fiction more than once. In the last story I wrote, it took centre stage.