Most would agree that keeping our promises is the right thing to do. We want to be able to trust other people, and knowing that someone will keep their word is one of the best indicators of a person’s trustworthiness and decency. But why, exactly, do we place so much importance upon keeping promises?

First, keeping promises is a clear indicator of a person’s integrity. But what does that mean? Roughly, integrity is a measure of personal wholeness or soundness of character. Integrity is not equivalent to trustworthiness, but it is related. To say a person has integrity is to say that they are a consistent, morally upstanding person with a strong character. Thus, keeping promises is a necessary component of having integrity because it is related to being consistent and having sound character.

Second, keeping promises is an important part of building communities. Community is a somewhat vague concept, but it roughly refers to a sense of interconnectedness among groups of persons. A community is a set of individuals with similar goals, interests, and values. Keeping promises is essential to group solidarity and maintaining a sense of unity between community members.

Finally, keeping promises is an important part of personal development and growth. A whole person is one whose word is meaningful. A developed person is someone who views promises as a kind of contract. We cannot simply go back on our word because we feel like doing so, or because an alternative arises that is in our interests. Once we have made a promise, our course of action has essentially been decided.

Complete persons understand intuitively that keeping promises is valuable, independently of the content of particular promises. There is something good about keeping promises that is not related to the personal benefit of doing so in any particular case.

We are thus compelled to keep promises for a variety of somewhat interrelated reasons. It seems to be that keeping promises is generally viewed as an important part of both personal and community development. Being the kind of person we want to be and developing the kind of world we want to live in requires that we keep promises, not only when doing so happens to be in our interest, but also because doing so has value in itself.

About the Author

Eli Weber is a graduate student in Environmental Ethics and a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Colorado State University. He holds bachelor’s degrees in sociology and philosophy from Chapman University and currently lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife Laura. He is a regular contributor to Mindful Source.

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