Interpersonal Reasoning: A Philosophical Psychology of Testimonial Trust

Abstract Anscombe famously said, “It is an insult and it may be an injury not to be believed.” But what is it to believe someone ? My aim is to show that understanding what it is to believe someone requires a conception of a distinctive kind of interpersonal reasoning . To do so, I develop an analogy between interpersonal reasoning and an Anscombean conception of practical reasoning. I suggest that the distinctive ‘form’ of interpersonal reasoning is recognition . I furthermore argue that this is to be understood as a primarily logical, rather than epistemological point. In concluding, I explain why a notion of interpersonal reasoning makes available an ethics of thought and, specifically, an account of testimonial injustice.