Immanuel Kant's Lying: Right Or Wrong?

450 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative

Lying: Right or wrong?

Lying is morally forbidden under any and all circumstances. These are words that Immanuel Kant believed and preached. Kant did not believe a person should lie even if good consequences could result from the lie. According to Kant we are morally obligated to be honest. He was a man who was set in his beliefs and lying was simply not tolerated. Kant did not believe that there was any morally correct way to lie. He held that even in extreme cases of an “Inquiring Murderer” we must still tell the truth. Even if lying to that “Inquiring Murderer” could save someone’s life, telling the truth is the morally right thing to do.

Kant’s assertion that one must tell the truth no matter the consequences comes from the moral principle of the categorical imperative. Categorical imperatives are absolute commands that we ought to follow, period. Kant believed that lying fell under …show more content…

At the end of the day lying always catches up to you and ultimately doesn’t do you any good. With that being said in my daily duties as a police officer I am often required to lie in order to do my job effectively. As a police officer my ultimate goal is to catch the bad guy and solve the crime. Unfortunately sometimes that means lying or deceiving in order to achieve that goal.

I do agree mostly with Kant as I don’t believe people should lie. People should tell the truth in all circumstances as it would eliminate suspicion and I believe overall people would be happier. Unfortunately that is not how society works. Good people, bad people, all people lie in some way or another at some point. This truth is what makes my job so difficult and what makes me resort to tactics that I personally don’t agree with. At the end of the day it’s about doing my job and unfortunately there are times where my job interferes with my sense of morality. Is this right? For me it is, for others absolutely

Show More
Related

  • Does The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time Explore The Concept Of Truth

    1773 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, lying means to tell an account of an untrue event or give false information.

    Read More

  • Kant Vs Mill on the Issue of Lying

    1763 Words  | 4 Pages

    Firstly, by looking at the first patient, whether she gets a kidney from her father or a “cadaver kidney” , there will be no difference because she needs a kidney nonetheless. The second patient however, cannot agree to give his kidney away because one of the main reasons is that he’s scared and lacks “the courage to make this donation”9. So right at this point, it can be seen that it would be better if the father didn’t give his kidney away because it wouldn’t cause him any happiness, whereas the daughter has two options to gIn everyday life, whether on a personal base or on a professional base, difficult scenarios, or also known as moral dilemmas, are present. Depending on whom the person is or what their belief and value systems are, the issue can be ‘resolved’. In this particular case, questions arise about whether it is morally right to lie to family members when something can be done, ignoring the fact of its after effects. The case will be explained in details later on including the patient’s state, but to answer this ethical question, two theorists will be presented for the con and pro side. For the con side, the deontologist Immanuel Kant will be presented with his theory that lying is prohibited under all circumstances, as for the pro side, John Stuart Mill will be presented for the utilitarian theory stating that whichever decision brings out the most happiness is the right decision. After discussing the case, my personal view of what is right will be stated with my own reasons, which is that lying is the right decision to be taken.

    Read More

  • A Lie To Save A Life

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    Using Kantian philosophy a lie is always immoral and wrong, no matter what the situation is. Kantian ethics establishes the idea that good will be based on the action itself rather than outcome or any inclination one may have to perform an act could be good will.

    Read More

  • John Stuart Mill Ethical Analysis

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    He universalizes this by saying that if one person lies then everyone lies. Kant says “lying is throwing away and, as it were, the obliteration of ones dignity as a human being” (Kant, 91). Kant then provides us with many strong examples on why he believes lying is unethical. Kant explains the two different kinds of lies, internal and external. Internal lies are worse because man convinces himself that a lie cannot harm anything and can possibly be useful (92). If one does not have a doubt about lying it can be dangerous. Kant says the only fear of man with an incentive to lie is the fear of punishment (92). If lying were to become a universal law the society would be in harm because no one could trust each other and life as a whole would be corrupt. Kant’s explanation of lying remains valid because it goes back to the categorical

    Read More

  • The Moral Permissibility of Lying

    3186 Words  | 7 Pages

    ...f utilitarian calculus might indicate that there is something wrong with utilitarianism, since a morally correct action can sometimes go against our conscience, and Mill has called conscience the foundation of morality. This is interesting, because it raises the question of whether we will ever have a moral theory that works in all cases. I believe that human nature is too complex for any consistent moral theory to be written down on a few pages. Perhaps a philosopher might come to do that someday. However for now, questions of morality such as whether lying is permissible should be answered by Kant’s moral theory. In cases where Kantianism cannot supply an answer, likely there is no other moral theory that can. Some questions, under some circumstances, must sometimes remain unanswerable—whether for the greatest good or happiness, or because of our respect for duty.

    Read More

  • When is Lying OK? Rejecting All Lies: Immanuel Kant by Sissela Bok

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    With different views on when it is OK to lie, the people continue to debate. But personally, I respect Kant’s views on the idea that lying is bad. Lying weakens the purpose to serve justice, destroys the liars’s dignity, and messes up the records. But I think that rare situations justify lies. I believe lies to save someone's life or just to protect someone from a big danger is the only type of lie that is justified. Those situations are the only times I think it is OK to lie. It might seem that lying to get yourself out of trouble is a situation that makes the lie justified. But I think that is a selfish reason for your own good and that people are thinking less about the society and more about their own good. Lying to get out of trouble is one of those many lies that are not justified.

    Read More

  • The Morality of Lies and Deception

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    We lie all the time, lying is not something new to our culture. We lie to our parents, we lie to our friends, we even lie to our significant other, but why do we do it? There is not one set reason on why we lie but they can vary from an insignificant reason to something more nefarious. A good operational definition of a lie is “A lie is a false statement to a person or group made by another person or group who knows it is not the whole truth, intentionally.” (Freitas-Magalhães) We have been raised to know that lying is usually a bad thing, and it’s better to tell the truth, not to mention the circumstances get exponentially worse if you are caught lying. No one wants to be labeled as a liar, or untrustworthy. This may sound unorthodox but I personally think lying is perfectly fine; depending on the situation. If you have a prima-facie duty to be dishonest it’s perfectly acceptable. Ross says a prima facie duty or obligation is an actual duty. “One’s actual duty is what one ought to do all things considered.” (Carson) I’m not the only one who finds this too be true. Ross would also agree with me, He says “Lying is permissible or obligatory when the duty not to lie conflicts with a more important or equal important prima facie duty.” (Carson) As I was doing research on this topic I did read one extremely compelling argument on why we ought not to lie. Aristotle basically said a person who makes a defense for lying could never be trusted. (King.)

    Read More

  • Deontology Versus Kant's Ideas

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    He states that in no case should you lie (Bennett 2). What Kant focuses on is deontology, this focuses on duty-based ethics. What duty-based ethics consists of is, doing what you should do for the right reasons, your moral obligations (Bennett 2). Sometimes people will do something they know is right to do but, for the wrong reasons. Someone may save someone’s life because they know they will get money out of it while they should be doing it to save that person with or without a reward. Kant believes that lying is wrong and immoral for anyone in any case, no excuses. Kant believes in a good will (Bennett 5). He believes that happiness cannot be achieved through a bad will. A good will must consist of truthfulness, doing the right thing and doing it because you care to help. Kant believes that along with having a good will, you should be morally good. Being “morally good” has to do with following the moral law. Under any circumstance, a person should never corrupt the moral law (Bennett 2). Everyone should live their life knowing and living by this moral law, never making mistakes and always making the right decisions for the right reasons. With the scenario given, telling a small lie to a friend, Kant believes that lying is against the moral law. Bentham wanted to optimize happiness, in that case lying was the answer. Whereas, Kant says that people deserve more than that, each person deserves to know the truth and should

    Read More

  • Ethical Theory: Criticisms Of The Kantian Moral Theory

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    For example, as under Kant’s theory, one must never lie (for it does not meet either categorical imperatives), and while under most situations the truth prevails regardless, some situations do call for a little more sympathy. Consider someone who is suffering after a physical trauma - distressed in regards to how society will react to their now scarred body – asking you if they would ever be accepted as “normal” ever again. Acting under your own moral judgement, most individuals would seek to calm this person down, to settle their worries, and would proceed to act out of empathy and tell them that they are still just like everyone else. However, this is lie, they are evidently not like everyone else – they are missing limbs and their skin is covered in scars, so Kant would rather you tell them this and worsen their distress. Beyond this, the instinctive reaction to lie to the individual out of empathy is deemed not morally praiseworthy as you are not acting out of a motive of duty (i.e. the duty to not lie); rather you have acted out of

    Read More

  • Why Is Lying Always Wrong

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    After reading the articles about lying, I concluded that it would be difficult to determine if lying is always wrong or sometimes acceptable. The complexity of this concept, as well as the infinite possibilities of different situations, makes it almost impossible for someone to claim that lying is always wrong or leads to the same result because, in the end, we do not have the power to determine the exact consequences of our actions or what occurs in the future. Therefore, I believe that, unlike Kant, that lying is not always wrong. I also believed the Stein’s argument is not applicable because, while he provides examples to show that lying leads to no grave consequences, his theory not does properly generalize to all lies (Stein, 2016). In

    Read More

  • Moral Exemplar Essay

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    What I mean by this extent is telling the truth unless it is going to lead to the harm of another. I wanted to draw this line because in the reading we discussed Kant’s argument which states in short, that we are obligated to the truth in all circumstances regardless of the outcomes. Kant believes this to be true because he is looking at the means to the end, which to him is doing what is right because it is right and not for any other reasons. This led us to taking about the example of the axe murderer looking for someone he’s trying to kill and we know the undisclosed location of this person; if we followed Kant’s view then we would be obligated to tell the axe murderer the location of the person. In Kant’s perspective our morality isn’t affected by disclosing the location of the person to the murderer, but instead the morality of the murderer trying to kill the person is in question. I don’t agree with this, I believe that Kant is on the right track; however, I would take a slightly different approach to his view of morality. This being that it is morally acceptable to be dishonest as long as the reason for this dishonesty is to save or help the life of another person, because in my perspective being a moral person is to look out for the benefit of others. By looking out for others in my personal opinion you are on the right path to living a good

    Read More

  • Lying Is Wrong

    919 Words  | 2 Pages

    Do you think that telling the truth can ever be morally wrong? I do think that telling the truth can be morally wrong because you can possibly put someone in danger physically or mentally. Further, telling the truth can sometimes lead to serious consequences such as death or mental break downs if the truth is told at a bad time. Moreover, telling the truth has its time and place just like lying has its time and place.

    Read More

  • truth Hurts

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kant’s opinion that one should not lie comes from the ethical philosophy called Deontology. This philosophy presumes that one should only perform actions that are his duty to perform. How one determines which action falls under his duty is by putting the action to the categorical imperative and see said action passes. Lets say, for instance that a person wondered if they should lie to obtain something they wanted. First that agent would have to make a maxim out of his action, specifically “If I want something, I should lie to obtain it”. The next step is to “make this maxim a universal law of nature”, meaning that one must attempt to imagine a world that in which every single person would have to follow that maxim (FP 662). According to Kant, if every single person in the world lied to get something they wanted, the whole concept of truth would break down. Nobody could obtain what they wanted, because ...

    Read More

  • Is Lying Always Bad?

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up, we are always told to never lie because it is the worst thing you could ever do. “Lying will only lead to a horrible situation with less than mediocre results. While lying is not always good, it is not always bad either. Samuel Butler once said “Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Telling The Truth

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    Telling the truth teaches one person self- respect for themselves and others as well. Telling the truth also sets a good example for others to do the same thing and make a “chain reaction”. People can make a “chain reaction” by passing on what they have done from one person to another, and before you know it, everyone is changing greatly, and the world is progressing tremendously. Lies are told all around the world, and they are told every day. One lie can often lead to another lie and cause you to be caught up in one big lie that will be hard to get out of if people do not tell the truth. If a person thinks that is okay to lie, they better think again, the truth always comes out no matter how hard a person tries to keep it in, or how much someone thinks that they can get away with lying. No person can keep in or hold a grudge with what they have done. After all, telling the truth is the right thing to do, and everyone should do it. Telling the truth is always much easier than the trouble of a

    Read More

More about Immanuel Kant's Lying: Right Or Wrong?

Open Document