摘要：Some obligations we create by declaration, by the exercise of normativepower. In the case of a promise, we do so by communicatingthe intention of hereby undertaking an obligation. In the case of acommand, we do so by communicating the intention of hereby bindingsomeone else to perform. Or so I shall assume. Call these voluntary obligations.As I use the term, a voluntary obligation is not merely an obligationthat results from our choice, nor even from our choice of an obligation.A voluntary obligation is the result of a specific form of choice – namelythe decision to communicate the intention of hereby binding someone toperform. Of course, there are various ways in which declarations or exercisesof normative power may fail at their purpose but the fact that thespeaker intended to bind someone by declaration is often crucial to theirbeing so bound.
