A Note on Promises.

I was discussing the question of promises with my daughter the other day. She was arguing that promises are worthless and therefore not worth making. ‘Comfort for fools’ she called them. (And you think I’m cynical.) I argued that they are worth making as long as you regard them as sacrosanct.

This is a difficult one. I can certainly think of circumstances in which the keeping of a minor promise would have consequences so negative or injurious that the value of breaking it would far outweigh the value of keeping it. In such a circumstance, reason would prevail in favour of the former.

So does that mean a promise really is worthless, or does it simply bring into question the nature of sanctity?