This paper takes an ontological approach to the subject of promising. Setting aside the typical concern over promissory obligations, I draw on recent work from the field of social ontology and develop a promissory schema that characterizes the functional role the practice of promising plays in our lives. This schema, put in terms of one agent's voluntary and intentional attempts to provide another agent with a specific kind of assurance, helps explain what we are doing when we make a promise, and what we desire when we ask that a promise be made. The promissory schema is explanatorily beneficial as it can help us understand why certain actions may be interpreted as promises, thereby reminding us that we need to be sensitive to the ways our actions can give rise to expectations in others.

中文翻译：

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有前途的社会本体论

本文对有希望的主题采用本体论的方法。撇开对承诺义务的典型关注，我借鉴了社会本体论领域最近的工作，并开发了一个承诺模式，该模式描述了承诺实践在我们生活中所起的功能作用。这种模式，根据一个代理人自愿和有意地尝试向另一代理人提供特定类型的保证，有助于解释当我们做出承诺时我们在做什么，以及当我们要求做出承诺时我们想要什么。承诺模式在解释上是有益的，因为它可以帮助我们理解为什么某些行为可能被解释为承诺，从而提醒我们需要对我们的行为可能引起他人期望的方式保持敏感。