Robert C. Solomon Books

To understand trust, we must abandon the notion that it is a simple question of belief or probability. Trust is not rational calculation; it is interpretation and commitment. It involves reading another person’s intentions, judging their character, and deciding to depend upon them—knowing that disap...

From Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life

If trust were merely rational, it would be much easier to manage, predict, or repair. But trust is rooted in our emotional lives. It arises from empathy, vulnerability, and the need for recognition. Every act of trust is an emotional gesture that says, 'I believe in you; I depend on you; I open myse...

From Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life

When we ask, 'What is real?', we confront the oldest and perhaps the most puzzling problem in philosophy—metaphysics. From Plato’s distinction between the world of changing appearances and the realm of unchanging Forms, to Aristotle’s grounded sense of substance as what truly exists, the quest to un...

From Introducing Philosophy: A Text with Integrated Readings

Who are you, really? That question, simple to ask yet infinitely complex to answer, lies at the center of philosophy’s exploration of the self. When Locke argued that personal identity resides in memory—the continuity of consciousness over time—he was offering a psychological rather than a metaphysi...

From Introducing Philosophy: A Text with Integrated Readings