Is it always virtuous to keep a promise?

Question

Are there times when promise-keeping is unethical?

Answer 1

It depends on the promise you made in the first place. Was it a virtuous promise? If no one is in danger, and you made a promise then  you should keep it. We are nothing more than our word, which should be used sparingly. I would say not keeping a promise is more a matter of integrity than ethics though. Think of it this way, if I made a promise to beat up my best friends ex- and I followed through, I would have practiced good integrity by keeping my promise, but I would be unethical in what my promise was.

Answer 2

Perhaps, prior to making a promise which one is honor bound to uphold and fulfill even to the loss of said ones own life, one should carefully consider what they are being asked to do and its possible consequences and ramifications before one makes such.

Perhaps if one were to live his or her life as if each act that one carries out will be his or her last act and he or she will be judge for all eternity by that act, how it was completed and that which followed the same, each might take the time to make the wisest decisions that one could make.

Be well, be thoughtful and, please, be wise.

Answer 3

h**l no....there is a time and place for a promise and if the shoe dont fit well dont wear it...

Answer 4

Let's ignore whatever the promise actually is, the action you promise to undertake is immaterial to the question.  The definitions of the righteousness of ANY action is up for debate, so whether you promise to murder someone or to buy your nephew ice cream we can treat it as either you keep it or don't.  Instead, let's look at what a promise is.  A promise is the acceptance of another's trust that you actually will follow through with what you promise.  It's a two way street between you, the promiser, and the promisee.  If the person doesn't trust you then you can promise anything at all, they'll never believe or trust you and your promises are worthless.  However, if you don't freely accept that trust, ie if your promise is given under duress or compulsion then it's a similar scenario.  A promise must be free of coercion to be valid.  Hence if my wife were standing on a cliff and told me that either I promised to join her new religious cult or she would jump off the cliff I would make the promise in a heartbeat.  And it would not be unvirtuous when I didn't keep my promise.  The promise was compelled from me, and the act of making the promise was used in a virtuous manner (to save my wife's life).  Because the trust was not freely offered there is no moral obligation to keep the promise once its use has served the necessary purpose.

Some would say that a promise is never freely given, that there is always an element of coercion.  You make a promise to convince, and you don't need to convince unless there is opposition.  However, I would say that if the act of promising serves a virtuous end while the promise itself is not virtuous then the breaking of the promise is invalidated and no longer matters, and is neither virtuous nor unvirtuous.

Answer 5

It's unethical when it harms others

Answer 6

yes, when the other person is in danger i suppose.

Answer 7

Um, yes.  Like when you promise not to answer dumb questions, but can't help yourself in answering someone that asks something that has infinite amount of answers.  

Answer 8

Yes when you don't want to keep the promise.

Answer 9

Yes.  Absolutely.  Your word should mean something, and to keep it looks favorably on you.

Answer 10

Assuming the the promise is nobel:

Why make it in the first place, if you were not going to keep it???

Or is this a substitute for a lie?

Answer 11

No, it is sometimes foolish to make them, though

Answer 12

If you promise to murder or steal or break any of the other 10 commandments, it is better to break the promise.

Answer 13

Yes, it can be unethical, for instance when you learn that by keeping the promise, you are commiting a crime, allowing someone else to commit a crime, or putting yourself or someone else in danger.

Answer 14

Here's a situation:  let's say you make a promise, and then are restrained by some authority (a parent/legal guardian, your boss, a change in a law) from keeping it?  

If you buy the old testament teaching, the responsibility for someone in authority over me restraining me from keeping a promise falls on the authority.  So if I am a minor child and I make a promise, and my father says, "no, you will not keep that promise", I can break that promise, and the responsibility becomes my father's.  

Likewise, if I make a promise to a customer at work, and my boss tells me to break the promise.  It is entirely up to him, becuase he bears the spiritual consequences of my broken promise.

I thought that was an interesting point of view.

Answer 15

Nothing is 'always virtuous'. This is the contradiction par excellence; to think that any moral imperative will continue to hold sway for the rest of time. Moral judgements reduce to evaluations, and evaluations in turn reduce to those who make them. None of us live forever, consequently - ?

Answer 16

If the promise made involved hurting someone physically or mentally or is intended to cause them embarrassment, then I think it's wrong.  But if you have a friend asking you to make those types of promises, I'd suggest ditching them, & fast!

Answer 17

I believe so.  If keeping a promise hurts yourself, another person, or the person who is making you keep the promise, you should not keep it.