Promises and Agreements: Philosophical Essays

424 Pages·2011·1.3 MB·English

by  Hanoch Sheinman (Editor)

Promises and Agreements
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Promises and Agreements
Philosophical Essays
EDITED BY
Hanoch Sheinman
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Promises and agreements / edited by Hanoch Sheinman.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-19-537795-8
1. Promises. 2. Contracts. I. Sheinman, Hanoch, 1966–
BJ1500.P7P76 2010
170—dc22
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Contributors xi
Chapter 1 Introduction: Promises and Agreements 3
Hanoch Sheinman
Chapter 2 The Problem with Promising 58
David Owens
Chapter 3 Three Dogmas about Promising 80
Margaret Gilbert
Chapter 4 Is Promising a Practice and Nothing More? 109
Stan Husi
Chapter 5 The Importance of Self-Promises 124
Connie Rosati
Chapter 6 On Coerced Promises 156
Eric Chwang
Chapter 7 Promising Too Much 183
Julia Driver
Chapter 8 The Value of Making and Keeping Promises 1 98
Michael Smith
Chapter 9 Act-utilitarianism and Promissory Obligation 2 17
Alastair Norcross
Chapter 10 Promises and Rule-Consequentialism 237
Brad Hooker
Chapter 11 Demystifying Promises 255
Stephen Darwall
Chapter 12 Promises and Trust 277
Daniel Friedrich and Nicholas Southwood
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Chapter 13 Promise as an Arm’s-length Relation 295
Daniel Markovits
Chapter 14 Sidgwick on Promises 327
David Phillips
Chapter 15 Contractarianism and Emergency 342
Yitzhak Benbaji
Chapter 16 Agreement as Joint Promise 365
Hanoch Sheinman
Index 397
Preface
T his book comprises fi fteen original free-standing contributions to the
philosophical discussion of promises and agreements, and a context-providing
introduction. No attempt has been made to cover all the important questions
in this area. My initial attempt to divide the essays into u seful groups (“the
consequentialists,” “the contractualists,” etc.) proved unsuccessful. The essays
in this collection are rather diverse. Some of the essays emphasize what’s spe-
cial or distinct about promises (e.g. Owens, Gilbert, and Markovits); others
simply treat promises as a useful example of a general phenomenon they wish
to illuminate (e.g. Smith, Hooker, and Norcross). Most of the essays focus on
promises, but others discuss (or also discuss) contracts, conventions, and
agreements (e.g. Markovits, Benbaji, and Sheinman). Most of the essays
focus on promises to another (e.g. Darwall; Friedrich and Southwood), but
one essay focuses on promises to oneself (Rosati). Several essays explore
some broadly consequentialist perspective (Smith, Norcross, and Hooker);
others do not. Most essays focus on perfectly g ood promises, but some essays
focus on rather problematic promises (Chwang and Driver). Most of the
essays are largely ahistorical, but others are historically informed (Owens
and Phillips). And so it goes. The fi nal section of the introduction ( chapter 1 )
gives an overview of the collection.
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Acknowledgments
T his collection grew out of a conference that took place at Rice University in
the fall of 2008. The conference was sponsored by the Rice University School
of Humanities, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Humanities
Research Center, and Philosophy Department. I would like to thank Gary
Wihl, the Dean of Humanities, Allen Matusow, Associate Director for
Academic Programs at Baker, Caroline Levander, Humanities Research
Center Director, and Steven Crowell, Chair of Philosophy, for their generous
support of this project. Many thanks to Stan Husi, the conference’s Student
Assistant, Whitney Smith, Event Coordinator, and Minranda Robinson-Davis,
Philosophy Department Manager, for their professional support. M any
thanks to Peter Ohlin, Oxford University Press Editor, for his unfl inching
support and seamless execution of this project. Finally, I would like to
thank my colleague Casey O’Callaghan for his good advice and valuable
suggestions.
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