Annette Baier (1986, 247) argues that “voluntary agreement, and trust in others to keep their agreements, must be moved from the center to the moral periphery, once servants, ex-slaves, and women are taken seriously as moral subjects and agents.” Great power differences undercut the very possibility of agreement that is voluntary and uncoerced. For example, Immanuel Kant's kingdom of ends—that is, rational beings—makes little sense where there are gross inequalities.

XREF: Connects to critiques of Rawlsian and Kantian contractarian ethics from feminist and critical-theory perspectives, and to discussions of coercion in unequal power relations.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 485