| Summary: | What exactly is goodwill in trust ethics? I aim to propose a definition of goodwill in this
essay. Up till now, there has been no proper definition of goodwill in trust-as-goodwill
accounts. This is problematic because definitional clarity is fundamental to any debate. I will
show that goodwill is not the meaningless catchall of positive motivations that it appears to
be. I identify other agents as the key impetus for goodwill, where the moral dimension of
goodwill is. Then I locate a part of the moral dimension in the commitment to meet certain
needs, and the other part of the moral dimension in one’s not involving any consideration to
meet one’s personal interest. However, my account is still not normatively strong enough and
the phenomena of unwanted goodwill remain unexplained. I revise my goodwill account
again to relocate its normative roots and explain the similarities it shares with Kant’s account
of goodwill. Although my revised account still fails to explain unwanted goodwill, it offers a
strong enough normative basis for goodwill in trust.
|
|---|