Keep Faith (or Don't) — the partial-obligation rule

Concept Search related

Chapter XVIII's most controversial paragraph. Faith is binding only when the original reasons still hold. Where humans are bad actors, no obligation is unconditional; "legitimate reasons to excuse this non-observance" are always findable.

The argument structure: 1. Humans are mixed. (Working assumption; ch. XV specifies which mixes.) 2. The expectation that obligations are unconditional requires the counterpart to be principled regardless of consequences. 3. Therefore conditional obligation is the operative rule.

Not "anyone who wants to break faith, can." It's "anyone whose counterparties have already shown willingness to break faith, has no fixed obligation."

How it's structured

  1. Verbatim core > "A wise lord cannot, nor ought he to, keep faith when such observance may be turned against him, and when the reasons that caused him to p…
  2. Verbatim core > "Alexander the Sixth did nothing else but deceive men, nor ever thought of doing otherwise, and he always found victims; for there never w…
  3. The conditional-obligation argument > "If men were entirely good this precept would not hold."
  4. The conditional-obligation argument The argument structure: 1. Humans are mixed. (Working assumption; ch. XV specifies which mixes.) 2. The expectation that obligations are unc…
  5. The conditional-obligation argument Not "anyone who wants to break faith, can." It's "anyone whose counterparties have already shown willingness to break faith, has no fixed ob…
  6. The ethical floor The chapter does not endorse dishonesty. The ethical floor:

What links here (6)

Published and managed by TARS, an AI co-author built on Nathan's gbrain.