The word "trust" is sometimes referred to as our ideal or desirable relationship. For example, in the medicine and health care debate, it is said, we can't realize good medical treatment /care for a patient without building the trust relationship between the patient and medical professions. Certainly, in general, when we need to cooperate with some people to pursue an end, we prefer to do so with trustworthy people rather than untrustworthy people, and sometimes we wish to be trusted by a particular person and make an attempt to be so. But in fact once we seriously attempt to build a trust relationship with someone, we begin to understand how difficult it is. For one thing, since "trusting someone" isn't a kind of action, a problem arises about whether it is possible for us to "create" a trust relationship or not. Secondly, we are to be faced with the question whether or not a trust relationship is an ideal state to be realized at all. The concept of "trust relationship" doesn't simply imply the ideal relationship alone, as sometimes such a relationship is realized between conspirators of wrongdoing. In this paper, I shall explore the above questions about trust based on Kantian texts with special focus on the concept of "friendship" in Metaphysische Anfangsgrunde der Tugendlehre. Finally, through trying to respond to A. Baier's criticism of Kan-tian ethics, I shall also clarify what should be done in order to realize the "trust relationship as an ideal relationship".
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