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Full Idea
If any fault of man be sufficient to discharge our covenant made, the same ought in reason to have been sufficient to have hindered the making of it.
Gist of Idea
If there is a good reason for breaking a contract, the same reason should have stopped the making of it
Source
Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan [1651], 1.15)
Book Ref
Hobbes,Thomas: 'Leviathan', ed/tr. Macpherson,C.B. [Penguin 1981], p.206
| 15 | Sin first, then sacrifice to the gods from the proceeds [Plato] |
| 2377 | No one who admitted to not keeping contracts could ever be accepted as a citizen [Hobbes] |
| 2379 | If there is a good reason for breaking a contract, the same reason should have stopped the making of it [Hobbes] |
| 22499 | We all know that just pretending to be someone's friend is not the good life [Foot] |
| 4116 | A weakness of contractual theories is the position of a person of superior ability and power [Williams,B] |
| 3896 | Any social theory of morality has the problem of the 'free rider', who only pretends to join in [Scruton] |