I've never been sure how to pronounce it.
asserted
I → pronounce → it
The term bona fides trips me up every time.
asserted
term → trip → me
But it's an important concept, so I try my best.
asserted
I → try → best
You might even say I make…a good faith effort.
uncertain
I → say → effort
To argue in good faith—the literal translation of the Latin—means assuming that the person on the other side is saying what he actually believes and that disagreement is not itself evidence of corruption, cowardice, or deceit.
asserted
disagreement → argue → corruption
The assumption and practice of good faith makes intellectual debate possible.
asserted
debate → make → faith
And yet it feels increasingly rare.
asserted
it → feel → ?
Tell someone you favor free trade and you will quickly learn you are really serving the interests of multinational corporations.
asserted
you → tell → corporations
Defend immigration and you are importing voters.
asserted
you → defend → voters
Oppose a war and you are carrying water for the enemy.
asserted
you → oppose → enemy
Politics, in particular, seems to bring out this line of reasoning.
asserted
Politics → seem → reasoning
A politician takes a position because donors paid him to.
asserted
donors → take → him
A writer believes something because subscribers reward her for believing it.
asserted
subscribers → believe → it
A think tanker arrives at precisely the conclusion her funders desired.
asserted
funders → arrive → conclusion
Certainly this happens.
asserted
this → happen → ?
But more often this gets the direction of causation wrong.
asserted
direction → get → causation
Money tends to follow views rather than producing them.
asserted
Money → tend → them
People give money to politicians because they agree with them.
asserted
they → give → them
Readers subscribe to writers whose ideas they find compelling.
asserted
they → subscribe → writers
Foundations fund organizations whose pre-existing missions they support.
asserted
they → fund → missions
An existing conviction can become financially rewarding without having been purchased in the first place.
asserted
conviction → exist → place
(Ask me how I know, as the editor of a libertarian magazine!)
asserted
I → ask → magazine
This should not be a difficult distinction to make.
asserted
This → make → ?
Yet we increasingly treat incentives as dispositive evidence of insincerity.
asserted
we → treat → insincerity
If someone benefits from saying something, he cannot possibly believe it.
uncertain
he → benefit → it
*
The original English uses of bona fides belonged primarily to law and commerce, where good faith meant honest dealing: acting without fraud or deception, keeping faith with the terms and purposes of an agreement.
asserted
faith → belong → agreement
That idea remains embedded in American commercial law.
asserted
idea → embed → law
The Uniform Commercial Code imposes an obligation of good faith in the performance and enforcement of contracts and defines it in terms of honesty and reasonable standards of fair dealing.
asserted
Code → impose → dealing
Contracts matter precisely because strangers do not need to love one another, share a religion, vote the same way, or agree about much of anything in order to cooperate.
asserted
strangers → matter → anything
But even a world thick with lawyers requires some residual assumption of honesty.
asserted
world → require → honesty
You cannot specify in advance every conceivable form of trickery.
asserted
You → specify → trickery
At some point, one party has to believe the other is at least trying to uphold his end of the bargain.
asserted
other → have → bargain
Over time, bona fides acquired another familiar English meaning.
asserted
fides → acquire → meaning
Someone's bona fides became evidence that he was genuine—the proof of who he was, what he had done, and why he deserved to be taken seriously.
asserted
he → become → what
Eventually the phrase came to refer to the credentials or qualifications themselves.
asserted
phrase → come → credentials
We talk about a politician's conservative bona fides, a scholar's academic bona fides, a candidate's foreign policy bona fides.
asserted
We → talk → fides
J.D. Vance has unusually formidable bona fides for the argument he once made about America's working class.
asserted
he → have → class
Vance grew up in Rust Belt Middletown, Ohio.
asserted
Vance → grow → Middletown
He knew the people he was describing in Hillbilly Elegy.
asserted
he → know → Elegy
He watched his own family make good decisions and disastrous ones.
asserted
family → watch → decisions
…and 25 more, not listed.
The Aporia
