Lying is intentionally misleading a single person or group of people with a deceptive statement or action. “The moral question of whether you are lying or not is not settle by established by establishing the truth or falsity of what you say. In order to settle this question, we must know whether you intend your statement to mislead.(Chapter 1 pg. 6) When it comes down to trying to decide whether you should justify or reject a lie there are several steps you should take. You need to be able to defend your arguments for your lie in a public setting against an audience or your peers, or what Bok considers “reasonable persons”. You cannot just be able to justify your lie to yourself because then it is automatically invalid. As humans we tend to …show more content…
Can you do something else instead and come out with a positive outcome that doesn’t involve lying? There are times in the world where it is necessary to tell a lie or deceive someone. But if you are going to tell a lie you need to look at the long term repercussions of that said lie. “If lies and truthful statements appear to achieve the same result or appear to be as desirable to the person contemplating lying the lie should be ruled out”. (Chapter 2 pg. 31)
Next you need to look at what the context of your lie is? The circumstances that form the reason for the lie, because you cannot fully understand your reason for lying until you look at all aspects surrounding the lie. Are you doing it to anger someone? Is it just a little white lie? “Many small subterfuges may not even be intended to mislead”. (chapter 5 pg. 58) Is it to save some one’s life? These circumstances that surround the lie matter to the motive behind the
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As he reads through the case he begins to realize that the officers have arrested a well-known serial rapist known in the media as “The Cross Country Rapist”. Ten years ago The Cross Country Rapist was known for using high doses of GHB to drug women before raping, them all over the country. Officers ran DNA against past cases after the man was arrested and they matched 8 other cases in 6 states. The prosecutor keeps reading more into the evidence and after reading all the reports of the past victims, he realizes that there was no way this recent victim was raped by him. When the victim had her blood taken after reporting the rape and her blood showed levels of GHB in it, but they were far too low, and there was not DNA left at the scene. As a prosecutor he really wants to be the one that puts this guy away. The statutes of limitations have run out on all the past cases and he knows they have the serial rapist in custody. The prosecutor knows that he shouldn’t put a victim on the stand and have her lie about who raped her. Should he keep the information he knows to himself and try the case and put away a known serial
I have been misappropriated! In other words my future has been subjected to delays as well as more stress and more difficult hoops to jump through to prove myself worthy of an abundant and successful career position. One might ask why I feel this way and some might even ask for a more detailed explanation. The word that stands out like a bright neon sign on the darkest night would be “Cheating”. I strongly believe cheating is wrong and is a form of not only stealing from someone’s hard work, but also stealing from everyone’s future as well as endangering people’s lives. Some might say what harm does cheating on a paper or exam really do to anyone and how can something so small have such a large impact on the world, people’s safety and professional
She lies to the bank so she doesn’t get charged with “$60 in overdraft fees”, out-and-out lie. She does not tell the truth to her husband about her day so he does not “[keel] over,” white lie. She lies to her clients so that she does not get fired for telling the truth about the reason she is late. She lies to her friends so that her friend’s feelings do not get hurt, (Ericsson 181).All of these are justifiable because of the intent. There are consequences to telling the truth in these cases and thus Ericsson needs to lie to avoid the
The people who claim that they do not lie are probably lying when they say it. Whether it is to deceive authority or just to play a joke on a friend, it is part of human nature to lie. In the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby takes on a character of wealth and luxury. Gatsby wants to win back his love interest from five years ago, so he secretly becomes wealthy through owning an illegal drug business, using his abundance of money to impress her. In contrast, in Tobias Wolff’s “The Liar,” he tells a story of teenage James as he lies about his life to appear more fascinating. He lies not because he wants to, but because it comes naturally to him. Both stories convey people struggling to find the purpose of their
In “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, the author uses her knowledge to talk about the different ways of lies and how those lies affect the liar, as well as the people who had been told lies. According to the author’s essay, there are 10 types of lies that people encounter every single day: the White Lie, Facades, Ignoring the Plain Facts, Deflecting, Omission, Stereotypes and Cliches, Groupthink, Out-and-Out Lies, Dismissal, and Delusion. Throughout the essay, it is connoted that people are lying in various ways even though they are not intended to. I had been taught that lying is a bad habit. According to Ericsson, there are many types of lie and I did three of them in my life: the White Lie, Omission, and Out-and-Out Lies; however, I can defend my lies for good purposes.
Lying is simply an act of not telling the truth, and this definition of lying will be used in future sections of this paper. There are three groups of lies t...
Speaking truthfully is a very important part of living ethically. The Bible has very strong feelings against lying as seen in this book of Psalms. If someone knowingly tells someone that they intend to do something, but know that there is no intention of actually doing it, they are lying. Most of the time small white lies are made just because a person is put on the spot and answers quickly with a rash thought. If someone doesn’t take the time to think about the question they were asked, and answer quickly, they could be lying unintentionally.
ethical egoism, it would appear that the author acted in an ethical manor. By telling the lie, the
Philosopher Immanuel Kant has a completely different perspective on the moral righteousness of lying. Kant believes it is unethical and sinful to lie no matter what situation presents itself. “Kant finds it especially offensive, contrasting the ‘dim, moles’ eyes fixed on experience’ with the ‘eyes belonging to a being that was made to stand erect and look at the heavens’. Kant believes in the ideology of promise keeping and if you break your promise, it is considered
The article “Rejecting All Lies: Immanuel Kant by Sissela Bok also presents the same argument. Sissela Bok presents the ideas and viewpoints of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher. Kant believed that lying was bad and that “truthfulness is statements which cannot be avoided is the formal duty of an individual to everyone, however great may be the disadvantage.” He believed lying was always bad no matter the situation. Kant said that lying “vitiates the source of law,” or makes the source of law weaker. Our whole purpose of the government is to serve justice and if everyone is lying in court, it gets harder to serve justice. The purpose of the government would not be fulfilled if people lie. According to Kant, lying also “harms the liar himself, by destroying his human dignity and making him more worthless even than a small thing.” Kant says lying makes the liar lose his or her pride and honor. And I think it probably makes the liar feel bad and makes them feel guilty. In the article “Teens Do their Share of Lying” by Loretta Ragsdell, a quote from Sabrina, a college freshman, takes about how she lied...
One may concede that if a person lies to another on the premise of a selfish goal where they are the only person who receives benefits, such as a person who borrows money without the intent of returning it, as in Kant’s example in section 4:22, they are effectively treating that other person strictly as a means to some other end, and therefore defying the second formulation which dictates that others should not be viewed purely as a means to other ends. However, as with the first formulation, there is the possibility for lying to admit of degrees and take the form of an imperfect duty. If one supposes that lying to another could be beneficial, as in a case where a small, permissible lie may boost one’s confidence and therefore chances of success, or similarly when promising insincerely may cause someone to go out and gain valuable life experience they would not have gained otherwise, the lie has the potential to prevent harm, but to actually breed positive consequences. In such a case, lying could again be seen as an imperfect duty, unlike the perfect duty insisted by Kant, and should not only avoid blame, but be celebrated as it is helping another
What are lies? A lie is defined as follows: To make a statement that one knows to be false, especially with the intent to deceive. There are several ways that lies are told for instance, there are white lies, lies of omission, bold faced lies, and lies of exaggeration. No matter what type of lie that one chooses to tell many people believe that lies do more harm than good.
People tend to lie in everyday conversations to look and feel more likable. What if the truth could set you free, help make friends, or even be a part of a life long friendship? The argument usually brought up is, "Is it always best to tell the truth no matter the consequences?" I've been in certain situations were lies have caught up with me. That is to say, there isn't one way out of a lie, and you usually have to admit the truth one way or another. Some people think that lying isn't a big deal as long as they are small (white lies), but with enough of them you will be caught in the middle with no way out. You will be trapped in your lies, and don't ever think more lies will fix it! Lying isn't a good habit, and could trap you from a world of justice and incorruptible friends.
Lying is when you purposely tell someone something you believe or know is false. If you told someone something you thought was true, but then it ended up being a lie, you simply have just given false information. Lying is obviously not an ideal thing to do, but sometimes it may be necessary. Here are the four types of lies.
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.
Secondly, it is okay to be untruthful if you are trying to protect people. In certain situations, it is safer, and more practical for you to tell a lie rather than putting a loved one in jeopardy. To illustrate you may be in a situation where you are in a serious or dangerous situation, and you do not what anyone else involved, to keep them safe. For example, if you are getting held up for ransom, would you tell the truth to a loved one and get them involved, or lie and keep them safe? The obvious answer is to keep them safe at all costs, even if it means lying. Also, you do not want to put someone in harm’s way, so it would be ...