Trust is diverse both in value and location. As a relational good, it calls attention to the attributes of truster and trusted. It may be understood as a precondition of human cooperation and a distinct policy available in specific circumstances. Trust may be inspired by the speaker or the speech, by character or action; as a feature of public institutions whose rules are open to alteration, trust may be construed as an artifact, a device that human beings can control and adjust to changing needs and demands. Trust may be a conditional value, justifying praise only on specific occasions, or it may express an unqualified trustworthiness signifying fidelity or mutual faithfulness. Love, an exclusive loyalty or affection, may make trust blind; equally, trust can attract trust in return. Hobbes takes an uncompromising view of these ambiguities and equivocations. To the man who thinks himself confident of the trustworthiness of others, he asks “what opinion he has of his fellow-subjects, when he rides armed; of his fellow citizens, when he locks his doors; and of his children, and servants, when he locks his chests. Does he not there as much accuse mankind by his actions, as I do by my words?”

But Hobbes's starting point is too severe and can only generate further mutual misapprehension and fear. It is true, of course, that human societies sometimes disintegrate to the point where mutual trust is impossible and citizens face each other as potential enemies.