Of course I Promise

Hmm… More from my ethics teacher J-P,

Dying promises are allegedly a real big moral deal. You and your grandfather are shipwrecked on a desert island; he is dying from injuries, you from starvation. As he dies, he convinces you to promise to bury his body in some Catholic way. You promise, he dies. As you’re preparing a grave, you begin to think about the fish and crustaceans out in the sea. You have some gear recovered from the shipwreck.
You realize that if you use grandpa’s body for bait, you’re likely to survive for a while, perhaps even long enough to be rescued. You do it. Did you do something morally wrong?

Ouch. I don’t think so, but ouch.

Imagine your other grandpa is dying in his home. You–his grandson and friend–are there to keep him company in his final hours. He pulls out a stash of cash that no one ever knew about: big rolls of cash. He says: “I want to give this to you, but only if you promise to use it only to help yourself out of binds and to purchase your own pleasures. Forget the other members of the family and the needy people of the world when it comes to this cash. If you want to help those folks out, earn your own money and use it, not mine. Do you promise?”
You do. But then you learn about the plight of young children dying horribly painful cancer-induced deaths. You’d like to give a little each month to some respectable charity. You use your grandpa’s cash. Did you do something wrong?

Oi vey. This is a tough one. Probably more so for me than for anyone else out there. See, because one of the most important things to me is that I never break promises. Period. Never. I’ve done it before and promised myself I’d never do it again. But then, because in promising it, I no longer was able to break my promises, I’ve been stuck in the cycle ever since.

🙂

The reason now that I never break promises is somewhat of a Kantian indirect obligation sort of thing (yes, yes, I know Kant specifically mentions promises, but I’m going somewhere with this). I feel that though a well-placed broken promise might make my life (or everyone’s life) easier and better, doing so would create a tendency to such actions that would snowball into severe untrustworthiness. In other words, I don’t trust myself to not get addicted to breaking promises. It’s the reason I don’t do drugs (seriously. Kind of a sad reason for doing stuff, ain’t it?)

Besides, I want people to know that my word is a bond.

So would it be wrong for me to break the promise? I don’t think so, but even if it saved a life, I wouldn’t do it.

Hey, hey, this is a wise consistency, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It’s the green goblin of great minds adored by big country dudes, sophists, and heathens.

– Πιξ

Hmm… More from my ethics teacher J-P, Dying promises are allegedly a real big moral deal. You and your grandfather are shipwrecked on a desert island; he is dying from injuries, you from starvation. As he dies, he convinces you to promise to bury his body in some Catholic way. You promise, he dies. As…