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Full Idea
If one borrowed a weapon from a friend who subsequently went out of his mind and then asked for it back, surely one ought not to return it?
Gist of Idea
Surely you don't return a borrowed weapon to a mad friend?
Source
Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 331c)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Republic', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1993], p.8
A Reaction
Only a Kantian would think of disagreeing with this obvious truth. There is no promise here, but an implicit moral commitment. Such things should always have an all-things-being-equal clause.
Related Idea
Idea 8015 Hobbes wants a contract to found morality, but shared values are needed to make a contract [MacIntyre on Hobbes]
| 7 | Surely you don't return a borrowed weapon to a mad friend? [Plato] |
| 7127 | If men are good you should keep promises, but they aren't, so you needn't [Machiavelli] |
| 2374 | In the violent state of nature, the merest suspicion is enough to justify breaking a contract [Hobbes] |
| 22442 | If lies were ever acceptable, with would undermine all duties based on contract [Kant] |
| 5906 | Promise-keeping is bound by the past, and is not concerned with consequences [Ross] |
| 18622 | Promises create a new duty to a particular person; they aren't just a strategy to achieve well-being [Ross] |
| 4252 | Promise keeping increases reliability, by making deliberation focus on something which would be overlooked [Williams,B] |
| 3838 | Promises hold because I give myself a reason, not because it is an institution [Searle] |