Research Interests

This paper argues that trust is a necessary precondition for the development of community relationships. Communities have traditionally been defined as tight-knit social groups founded upon shared values, norms, interests, histories, and/or goals. Trust is meanwhile treated as an emergent feature of existing community relationships. However, I argue that commonalities alone do not facilitate community development; rather, for a community to form, individuals must first develop trust in one another. I further argue that two common dichotomies of trust – the thick/thin model and the interpersonal/social model – fail to identify the unique sort of trust that facilitates communities, and propose a category called community-constituting trust that is better suited to accomplishing this task.

This paper conducts an overdue philosophical analysis of parasocial relationships, with the goal of determining whether these might impose special obligations on their participants. I first argue that these relationships should be understood as genuine rather than imaginary relationships. Second, I compare these to other relationships that have been said to generate special obligations. I argue that the obligation-generating features of other relationships are not shared by the parasocial relationship, and conclude that these relationships do not impose special obligations.

First, this paper argues that the advent of ChatGPT has undermined trust in the student/teacher relationship, particularly in writing-heavy disciplines like philosophy. The loss of trust in this relationship has negative implications for student learning, because trust plays an essential role in the learning process. Second, I make some concrete suggestions for how instructors can rebuild this trust relationship without compromising academic integrity.