Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 13.07.1981, Page 247

Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 13.07.1981, Page 247
Promises and Games 237 content of the statement of intention and the interests of the people concerned in that content. To quote him: (1) Jones uttered the words ‘I hereby promise to pay you Smith, five dollars.’ From this he moves to (2) “Jones promised to pay Smith five dollars.” Searle stresses that the conditions for making this move are straight- forwardly empirical i.e. non-evaluative.—This may be so. The differ- ence between threats and promises is drawn in terms of the interest of the promisee in the content of the promise, and whether harm or benefit to the promisee is intended by the promiser. These conditions can be discovered by empirical investigation, although sometimes it may be difficult to decide whether a promise or a threat is being made; what is meant as a promise may be taken as a threat and vice versa. But con- sider: (1) “Jones uttered the words ‘I hereby promise to pay you Smith in kind for the thrashing you gave me yesterday” This would entitle you to infer, not only (2) Jones promised to pay Smith in kind for the thrashing he gave him yesterday, but also ‘Jones threatened to pay Smith in kind for the thrashing he gave him yesterday. Jones would be threatening to retaliate and, although it is perfectly proper to call threats promises, it would be odd, according to our present normal conceptions of morality, to move t0 Searle’s next step, which is ‘Jones placed himself under an obligation to pay Smith in kind for the thrashing he gave him yesterday.’ Since it Was in terms of the content of the statement and the interests of the Parties concerned, rather than the formula, that we distinguished threats from promises, I submit that this is where we should look for the oddity °f saying that in threatening we are placing ourselves under an obliga- h°n, whereas this seems less odd in the case of promises. Now, having placed himself under an obligation, Jones is supposed to be under an obligation, other things being equal. But, even with a ceteris paribus clause, it seems odd to claim that a man who threatens to retaliate is placing himself under an obligation. There is no presump- ti°n that he is doing this in the first place. Only when there is a pre- sumption in favour of being obliged to perform an action can it be aPpropriate to say that we ought to perform it, other things being equal.
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