On every account of trust based on assessments of trustworthiness, we obviously face epistemological and time constraints that prevent us from having strong trusting relationships with more than a limited number of people. The trustworthiness can be morally motivated, the result of encapsulated interest, or a matter of character or disposition. The constraint of time is clear enough if we must have ongoing relations with others in order to build trust in them. The epistemological constraints even cut against the possibility that we can trust large numbers of people through their reputations.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 782