Question Hello Philosophers, Does an act of betrayal have to produce harm to the person or group of people being betrayed? For instance a man Bob promises to his wife Mary that he will quit smoking. Mary believes that Bob has not smoked for over a year when in fact he has been smoking the whole time without her knowing. Would this be considered betrayal even though his smoking is causing no harm to Mary as she is unaware? would it be considered betrayal only when she finds out?

Accepted:
November 26, 2009

Comments

It clearly would be betrayal since Bob is regularly doing something he tells his wife he is not doing, and deception is part of betrayal. She does not know but to argue that as a result she is not harmed is like arguing that if I steal from someone and they never know, then I am not harming that person. Clearly I am and theft is not only theft when the owner of the stolen property misses it.

Perhaps even more significant here though is not the harm to Mary but the harm to Bob. He apparently spends a year lying to someone, and carrying out the activity which he denied practising on perhaps a daily basis, and one wonders what effects this has on his character. Would this make him likelier in the future to be tempted to deceive others? Might this encourage in him a feeling of contempt for the truth and communicating the truth to others, even those close to him? These factors suggest that there is also an issue in whether Bob is in danger of betraying himself as well as Mary.