UC Irvine

Trust has been explored in epistemology focusing on its nature, justification, and conditions. In turn, the study of distrust has been limited, often considered merely the absence of trust. Given its prevalence in current events, understanding distrust becomes crucial, prompting questions about its nature, origins, rationality, and impact on our epistemic practices. In this dissertation I firstly argue for the genealogical and transcendental priority of trust over judgments of trustworthiness and untrustworthiness. I then give an analysis of the rationality and irrationality of distrust withing the framework of Social Hinge Epistemology. Finally, I apply my analysis to evaluate cases in which a layperson distrusts an epistemic authority and I use it to determine when such attitude is rational or not.