Abstract

This chapter explains why moral and political disagreement is pervasive and why there is a need to cooperate with diverse others anyway. It then develops conceptions of trust, social trust, trustworthiness, and moral peace between persons that are required to explain how people who disagree with one another can cooperate. More specifically, the chapter develops an account of social trust as a social relationship that can maintain cooperation between diverse persons while respecting the dignity and worth of all. It also describes a moral peace between diverse persons as a society with a high degree of social trust. Determining which institutions properly sustain moral peace is the aim of the rest of the book.