Thinking in Promises

Chapter 4. Conditional Promises—and Deceptions

Not all promises are made without attached conditions. For instance, we might promise to pay for something “cash on delivery” (i.e., only after a promised item has been received). Such promises will be of central importance in discussing processes, agreements, and trading.

The Laws of Conditional Promising

The truth or falsity of a condition may be promised as follows. An agent can promise that a certain fact is true (by its own assessment), but this is of little value if the recipient of the promise does not share this assessment.

• I promise X only if condition Y is satisfied.

A promise that is made subject to a condition that is not assessable cannot be considered a promise. However, if the state of the condition that predicates it has also been promised, completing a sufficient level of information to make an assessment, then it can be considered a promise. The trustworthiness of the promise is up to the assessing agent to decide. So there is at least as much trust required to assess conditionals as there is for unconditional promises.

We can try to state this as a rule:

A conditional promise cannot be assessed unless the assessor also sees that the condition itself is promised.

I call this quenching of the conditionals. Conversely:

If the condition is promised to be false, the remaining promise is rendered empty, or worthless.

A conditional promise is not a promise unless the condition itself is also promised.

Note that ...