On the Obligation to Keep One’s Promises Essay -- Essays Papers

On the Obligation to Keep Ones Promises Moral philosophy is generally in rocking horse of the ought. More specifically, a common goal is to create some sort of rubric for evaluating specific situations, and in the face of a decision, revealing what ought to be d atomic number 53. A very important and consequently complicated ought is that which dictates if one should keep a promise. This topic is so vast that is seems it would take a great deal of exploit to make progress towards an answer, and in fact, there have been volumes of philosophy written about this very subject matter. Two 18th-century moral philosophers who tackled this mammoth rather successfully are Immanuel Kant and David Hume. The backbone of Kants moral philosophy is what he calls the categorical imperative. In the Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant uses the preface and the first section to introduce and develop the idea, and so in the sulphur section finally states it for the first time Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time give that it should become a customary law. (Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, pg30)1. The maxim Kant speaks of is simply the motive behind the act, and a universal law is one that is a priori, namely, a law of position in general without regard to difference of its objects. (Grounding, pg1). The categorical imperative states that an act should only be preformed if the motive driving the action could become a universal law, and therefore could be applied always regardless of the specifics of a situation. It should seem obvious now that the categorical imperative is directly related to the question of whether one should or should not keep a promise. In... ...ames. W. Ellington translation. The page citations follow the pages in that edition (see Sources). 2 This quote, and all other quotes from David Humes Treatise of Human Nature comes from the second edition of the Oxford tex t. The page citations follow the pages in that edition (see Sources). Sources Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. London Penguin Books, 1995.Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1978.Kant, Immanuel. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (Grundlegung zur Metaphysikder Sitten). Translated by James W. Ellington. Cambridge Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1993.Kant, Immanuel. On the Supposed Right to Lie because of Philanthropic Concerns(Uber ein vermeintes Recht aus Menschenliebe zu lugen). Translated by James W. Ellington. Cambridge Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1993.