According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a promise is defined as "a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified." It is, therefore, assurance or declaration that an individual will fulfill a particularly predetermined mandate. Promise-keeping can, therefore, be regarded as behavior of fulfilling promises that people make in their daily endeavors. Promise-keeping is not an isolated issue. It is a way of showing other behaviors held by an individual including trust and honesty. When one has delivered on their promise, they have essentially built upon trust. It is also critically vital to note that for a society to function well, relationships must be based on trust.
Therefore, since trust and honesty are essential parts of promise-keeping, breaking a promise is immoral. The system and networks of the society including the laws are all built around a promise. Essentially, a promise is a social contract made between two or more people for a particular result. 1 People make promises to obey laws, abide by specific rules, and even diligently serve a political office as seen in the case of the president. When one breaks a promise, they are damaging the social contract they initially made which is an indictment to their levels of trust, dependability, and honesty. The world would have immense chaos if promises were not adhered to.
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Another good example of a relationship that is built around promise-keeping is marriage. The rise in the cases of divorce in many advanced countries boils down to the inefficiency in promise-keeping. When couples make a promise that they will remain together for better and for worse, they are bound by a social contract based on trust, loyalty, and love. Hence, when one fails to live up to a promise, they depict their lack of character and inability to fulfill their responsibilities. As such, this makes failure to make promises one of the most immoral aspects that an individual could display.
However, there are certain instances where promise-breaking could be permissible and morally acceptable. The golden rule in this scenario is that a promise should only be broken if the harm would be less compared to keeping it. For instance, one can break the promise of remaining in a marriage relationship if it has turned out to be abusive. It is also vital to note that whereas promises are important for social coexistence, human beings are bound to make mistakes. Therefore, one can renege on a particular responsibility if they took it without proper assessment of the advantages and disadvantages.
However, in an ideal situation, individuals should focus primarily on keeping promises. It is more of a responsibility than an obligation. For individuals who maintain their promises, they have the advantage of bolstering their personal integrity. Although people can be allowed to break promises if they are uncomfortable or if they made them with ignorance, this should not be a norm. The only obligation that human beings have is to establish meaningful relationships, demonstrate trust, and reliability in all their engagements. Promise-breaking, on the other hand, should be viewed as the last resort in every scenario. It should only be taken once all channels that build the relationship have been exploited without any fruitful outcome.
Bibliography
Cadsby, C. Bram, Ninghua Du, Fei Song, and Lan Yao. "Promise keeping, relational closeness, and identifiability: An experimental investigation in China." Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics 57 (2015): 120-133.
