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Is it wrong to break an immoral promise?

Forums: Philosophy, Ethics
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joefromchicago
 
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 10:50 am
Let us suppose that murder is morally wrong. Furthermore, let us suppose that breaking promises is also morally wrong. Now, suppose that Albert Assasin promises Hubert Husband that, in exchange for a large sum of money, he will kill Hubert's wife. As he is preparing to commit the deed, however, Albert has a change of heart, and decides that he will not go ahead with the murder.

Question: was it morally wrong for Albert to break his promise to Hubert?
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 4,944 • Replies: 45
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Priamus
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 10:57 am
Quote:
Question: was it morally wrong for Albert to break his promise to Hubert?


Yes.

First, we are watching that promise from our moral. You can say, "I wouldn´t do it", naturally because you have another kind of moral or values. But at this case there is another moral between these people, and they have their own moral. Therefore, to break that promise and not to fulfill with what has been promised is wrong.

Regards.
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jpinMilwaukee
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 11:21 am
I think the difference is in the amount of wrongness. While it was wrong for him to break his promise, at least in my eyes, it would have been more wrong to commit the murder.
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Scorpia
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 12:07 pm
It would only be morally wrong if he took the money first as it was a condition of the promise.
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dyslexia
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 01:02 pm
If he took and kept the money and then did not fulfill his obligation, he would probably be elected to congress.
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Intrepid
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 01:11 pm
It was morally wrong to make the agreement in the first place
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Noddy24
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 02:18 pm
Do Albert and Herbert have any family ties?
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joefromchicago
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 03:06 pm
Scorpia wrote:
It would only be morally wrong if he took the money first as it was a condition of the promise.

Why should it matter whether Albert took the money or not? If breaking a promise is morally wrong, then why should it make a difference if the promise was accompanied by any kind of payment?
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joefromchicago
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 03:08 pm
Intrepid wrote:
It was morally wrong to make the agreement in the first place

That is undoubtedly true, but does that fact have any bearing on the wrongfullness of Albert's breaking of his promise?
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joefromchicago
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 03:09 pm
Noddy24 wrote:
Do Albert and Herbert have any family ties?

Why would that make any difference?
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fishin
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 04:12 pm
Of course it would be morally wrong for him to break the promise.

Since you created this with the supposition that breaking a promise is morally wrong I don't see there is any room for anyone to answer otherwise.
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djbt
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 05:39 pm
Re: Is it wrong to break an immoral promise?
joefromchicago wrote:
Let us suppose that murder is morally wrong. Furthermore, let us suppose that breaking promises is also morally wrong. Now, suppose that Albert Assasin promises Hubert Husband that, in exchange for a large sum of money, he will kill Hubert's wife. As he is preparing to commit the deed, however, Albert has a change of heart, and decides that he will not go ahead with the murder.

Question: was it morally wrong for Albert to break his promise to Hubert?


Yes. It would also be morally wrong to keep his promise, and murder Hubert's wife. Simply, by the moral code you have outlined, it is morally wrong to promise to do something morally wrong. If you attached degrees of wrong-ness to murder and breaking promises, we could decide which of the two moral wrongs Albert must choice from is less morally wrong, otherwise we must assume either action is equally wrong.
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extra medium
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 06:26 pm
I believe morals are all gray.

While it is morally wrong for him to break the promise, overall he is doing the more closely moral act by not committing the murder.

By not committing the murder, he is working toward greater comprehensive morality, even though he broke the promise.
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CalamityJane
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 06:42 pm
Well, I think Hubert doesn't have a moral commitment
towards Albert, as Hubert has initially promised something
that is considered not only morally wrong, but has
legal repercussion as well, whereas braking a promise
that was immoral to begin with, won't have any effect
on Hubert.

So, not keeping a promise to an immoral deed sets off
being morally wrong.
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Ray
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 07:00 pm
It is not wrong to break an immoral promise because the promise itself isn't right. Therefore, you can't have a moral obligation toward sentences that are not moral.
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ebrown p
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 07:31 pm
The honorable thing for Albert to do is give back the money, and then fulfil his promise.

This is the only way he can be assured the money didn't corrupt him.
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Noddy24
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 08:18 pm
In a world of tribes and clans a blood relationship between the parties might well complicate the issue. Look at Afghanistan.
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Ray
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 08:58 pm
A promise is basically a trust agreement between people. If the agreement is wrong, then it is not wrong to dismiss the agreement. Breaking some promises might be considered wrong by people because it would be a breach of trust; that's basically it. However, if a promise is made that is wrong in the first place, then you would have an obligation to not follow that promise. There is no breach of trust since the agreement is harmful to anyone else.
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Brandon9000
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Jun, 2005 09:06 pm
I would probably honor the contract, but explain to the victim that it was not personal, and that I regretted it, but that I just didn't want to be a liar. Hopefully this would make the wife feel somewhat better about having to go. Oh, and I would shoot her somewhere like the head that would cause instantaneous death without pain. I'm not a killer, but my word is very important to me.


















Kidding, of course.
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val
 
  1  
Reply Fri 10 Jun, 2005 05:11 am
Re: Is it wrong to break an immoral promise?
joefromchicago

Quote:
Let us suppose that murder is morally wrong. Furthermore, let us suppose that breaking promises is also morally wrong. Now, suppose that Albert Assasin promises Hubert Husband that, in exchange for a large sum of money, he will kill Hubert's wife. As he is preparing to commit the deed, however, Albert has a change of heart, and decides that he will not go ahead with the murder.

Question: was it morally wrong for Albert to break his promise to Hubert?


I think we can see it from two different levels.
First, if we assume that there is an hierarchy of moral values, and life is a moral value superior to the value of keeping a promise, then Mr. Albert did the right thing.

If there is no hierarchy, the problem is in the object of the promise. A promise is always about something. If the object is morally wrong, then the promise has no moral value in itself. Breaking it is not morally right or wrong. If not, we would fall in a contradiction: an action is moral when it is immoral.

The problem, as I see it, is that we cannot see two moral duties as separated things. And here is one of the reasons I don't like Kant's moral law.
Breaking a promise is morally wrong because we assume that the promise has some moral value in itself. But if the promise is immoral in itself, then the presumption doesn't exist anymore.
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