A short (very short) lesson in philosophy

[In the style of Melvyn Bragg]

- Good Morning and welcome to 'In Our Time'.
It was Socrates who, just prior to his suicide in 399BC, said "Nobody trusts me, I've had enough".
As an international playboy of his time, Socrates image was up there with the best of them, so the question of trust played a significant role in his demise, rather than an image problem getting him down, or the terminal spread of the nasty rash that he contracted on the Athenian coast the Summer of 400BC (a bit like the summer of '69, with togas).

This morning I'm joined by Adam West, Nuffield Scholar and "professor inabsentia" at The University of Life.

Adam, please define the difference between trust and image for us.

- Morning Melvyn.Socrates mistake was not the fact that he should have taken precautions with his love-life in order to prevent that minor rash. His mistake was that he paid more attention to his public image and did not monitor how much the public trusted him.
Of course there are significant linkages between trust and image, however the findings of my recent study are that trust is causal and objective and image is purely a symptom of actions and thus subjective. As such, there are many circumstances such as in agriculture where need to deal with public trust issues rather than seeking to improve our image by whatever means.
By the way, you sound a bit blocked up Melvyn. Do you want some Sinex?!