Friday, October 30, 2015
To Promise or Not to Promise
Let's face it everyone in their lifetime has broken a promise or two. Maybe it was intentional or maybe it was just due to a conflict that occurred. Today in class we discussed how Nietzsche believed that to breed an animal that is entitled to make promises. When a person decides to make a promise they are basically committing themselves to that action. Now if you make a promise to go out with your friend to a party, but you end up getting shot and end up on the operation table; you are still breaking your promise. You did not break the promise intentionally, but technically you still did. If you choose to flake on your friend and come up with some type of BS excuse then you are truly breaking your promise. You are testing your will as a slave because, you chose to lie instead of committing to going to the party with your friend. According to Nietzsche you are weak. Now like Larshay mentioned today in class, if you say " If God is Willing" that is kind of different to me. You are making a promise, but you are not at the same time so it is kind of like a 'maybe.' Nietzsche makes valid points when it comes to breaking promises, but when you break the promise and it is not in your control I disagree with Nietzsche. If a person is intending to make good on their promise and something happens to them, that is out of their control. Like with my previous example, if it was your intention to go to the party with your friend, but you got shot; you were still intending to make good on your promise. Promises are made with the thought that nothing bad will halt your future plans.
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With regards to your claim that "promises are made with the though that nothing bad will halt your future plans", I agree completely. Most of our lives are consistent enough to make this kind of thing a pretty rational thing to do. For example, we live in a world where we base our actions on the premise that things will continue to happen as consistently as they have in the past. We may not expect to get shot while going out, because it has never happened before; therefore, we promise to be there because we have been able to do so consistently in the past.
ReplyDeleteI agree that when we make promises, we don't realize that we are guaranteeing the person that absolutely nothing is going to come up and you will fulfill your promise even though we have no way of knowing what the future holds. The phrase "if God is willing" is tricky to me because from a religious standpoint i understand it as the person understands that they have no control over what will happen therefore they are letting you know that their intentions are to fulfill their promise. But when people use that phrase i think they are meaning it as they will fulfill their promise if they don't get seriously hurt to or die.
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