Is breaking a promise immoral?

One has a moral duty to keep one’s promises because making a promise will lead others to believe that you will do what you promise. Breaking the promise is then tantamount to deceiving those one promised, and since one has a moral duty not to do this, one has a moral duty to keep one’s promises.

What do you call a broken promise?

renege Add to list Share. To renege is to go back on your word or fail to keep a promise. Not quite lying, reneging is more a sin of omission — failing to do what you said you would.

What is a lying promise?

Kant’s second example about keeping promises (the lying promise) involves borrowing money and promising to pay it back even though one knows one can never do so (Kant in Solomon and Martin, 291 )

Is it a lie to break a promise?

Because of life’s uncertainty the promise from the beginning would be considered a lie, until said promise is executed in full it remains the promising lie. So Yes breaking and even making a promise is a LiE . It is called the PROMISING LIE.

Is it immoral to lie to protect people?

If we hold that lying is always immoral, that rules out lying to protect people, as well as relatively innocent lies like telling kids about Santa Claus. The issues of lying can also be applied to breaking promises. Now again, keeping a promise is generally seen as a moral necessity.

Is it moral to break a promise?

Breaking promises decreases trust, hurts people, and can harm society. But can breaking a promise be moral? Imagine that someone told you that the dam holding a reservoir of water was about to break, but made you promise not to tell anyone.

Is it deceitful to make a false promise?

Making a false promise and lying are both being deceitful. A promise only lives in the future and a lie is past based. It is not deceitful to have a promise be unfulfilled and acknowledge that. I appreciate this conversation to distinguish two distinct language phenomena.