Situation:
Barry didn’t post an Analog Dilemma last week. I really look forward to those things. He posted one every week, just like he said he would in his first post. I came to expect him to post one every week and yet, last week, there was nothing.
He broke his promise. Ok, maybe he didn’t break a promise, but there was an implicit understanding between us that he would provide such-and-such and such-and-such would be given to him in exchange. We entered into a contract–there really is no other term for it–and he opted out.
He’s got a lot to answer for. And he’ll probably just end up asking twenty questions.
Questions:
What does it mean to break a contract? What makes a contract legally binding and a promise only a minor moral quibble? When we say we are going to do something are we actually saying that if we don’t do it there should be consequences? Are all contracts the same? How do I know if I enter into a contract? How do I know when I can consent to enter into a contract? Are contracts that can’t be consensual really contracts? Is there, along that line, really any such thing as an ‘implicit contract’? When I go to Starbuck’s and I order a cup of coffee and the bill comes out to be $10,000, did an injustice occur somewhere? Don’t our expectations factor into our decision to make agreements and come to terms? If every explicit term of a deal cannot be thoroughly explicated before the participants engage in it (for instance, when I purchase a cheeseburger from MacDonald’s I assume too much to be written: they’re not going to kill me, hurt, rob, maim, question, suntan, wax, insult, love me), what does need to be said? And how would you know? What does it take to enter a contract? Did Barry enter one with his claim that he would do an Analog Dilemma every week? Why or why not? If you didn’t even know that Barry violated this contract, has he really harmed you in any way? Could Barry have written this post if he had written another last week? Is lying the breaking of a contract? If not, is it okay to lie in a libertarian world without consequences?
