ISBN : 9780195377958
Promises and agreements are everywhere; we make, receive, keep, and break them on a daily basis. The quest to understand these social practices is integral to understanding ourselves as social creatures. The study of promises and agreements is enjoying a renaissance in many areas of social philosophy, including philosophy of language, action theory, normative ethics, value theory, and legal philosophy. This volume is the first collection of philosophical papers on promises and agreements, bringing together sixteen original self-standing contributions to the philosophical literature. The contributors highlight some of the more interesting aspects of the ubiquitous social phenomena of promises and agreements from different philosophical perspectives.
PREFACE
CONTRIBUTORS
ANNOTATED TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction: Understanding Promises and Agreements
2. The Problem with Promising
3. Three Dogmas about Promising
4. Is Promising a Practice and Nothing More?
5. The Importance of Self-Promises
6. On Coerced Promises
7. Promising Too Much
8. The Value of Making and Keeping Promises
9. Act-Utilitarianism and Promises
10. Promises and Rule Consequentialism
11. Demystifying Promises
12. Promises and Trust
13. Promise as an Arm's Length Relation
14. Sidgwick on Promises
15. Contractarianism and Emergency
16. Agreement as Joint Promise
SUBJECT INDEX
NAME INDEX
