Trust and Its Betrayal: A Formal Analysis of Epistemic States
A new paper on arXiv (2608.00321) presents a formal analysis of trust as a subjunctive epistemic state. The authors define trust as a propositional attitude where A trusts B's competence if A believes that were P true, B would know it, and B's integrity if A believes that were B to know P, he would disclose it. They develop three representations: lexicographic assumption, ordinal closeness in a Lewis-Stalnaker sphere system, and strong belief in a conditional probability system. They investigate whether the Brandenburger-Keisler impossibility on common belief survives when rationality is replaced by trustworthiness. The three representations agree that every finite de dicto... (truncated for brevity). The paper is relevant to epistemology and game theory, with potential implications for AI and multi-agent systems.
Key facts
- The paper is titled 'Trust and Its Betrayal under Three Representational Strategies'.
- It is available on arXiv with ID 2608.00321.
- Trust is defined as a subjunctive epistemic state.
- Three representations are developed: lexicographic assumption, ordinal closeness, and strong belief.
- The paper examines the Brandenburger-Keisler impossibility on common belief.
- The analysis replaces the assumption of rationality with trustworthiness.
- The three representations agree on every finite de dicto... (incomplete).
- The paper is relevant to epistemology and game theory.
Entities
Institutions
- arXiv