The works of Shelly Kagan and Charles Fried will be studied in determining the wrongness of lying. The definition of lying will first be presented followed by the arguments as to why lying is perceived as wrong. It will then be argued that lying is not necessary wrong.
Lying involves asserting a claim that one knows as false to the other with the intention to mislead the listener. There is generally a widely accepted constraint against lying. Constraint against lying should not be mistaken with a requirement to tell the truth since no such requirement exists. One has a negative duty against telling a lie whereas there is no positive duty requiring one to tell the truth.
The morality of lying is not be derived by the consequences of the lies. Imagine a scenario where I am asked a certain question and I answer that question to the best of my knowledge. I genuinely wanted to provide a right answer to the question, however the answer that I thought was true is actually false. From a consequentialist’s view, the results from the above scenario and lying are the same and therefore will hold same moral weight. However, even though the end consequence may be the same in that the listener is misled in both cases, it is hard to see that a case where one genuinely attempts to help a listener with a mistaken information and a case that one purposely tries to misled the listener with a knowingly false information should be subjected to identical moral guilt. If it is not the end consequence that determines the permissibility of lying, then it follows that what differentiates lying from other instances of misleading the listener is the intention behind the act. As such, the constraint against lying is due to its intention to mislead the othe...
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...ws for general trust among men exists. In modern day society, in most situations, it is easier to witness deceit and lying of one another than witnessing truth and it certainly is not the case that one can claim any entitlements to any truths. For example, censored media only giving you limited knowledge, car salesman lying about the true price of the car, etc. In such cases, I may desire to receive truthful information but in cases where truths aren’t granted, I cannot hold that I was done wrong because I am entitled to the truths. It would certainly be ideal if such institutions existed, however, it is simply no longer reasonable to expect such institutions and it’s more unreasonable to set such a hard constraint against lying based on such unrealizable ideals.
Reference:
Shelly Kagan, Normative Ethics, 106-16
Charles Fried, Right and Wrong, “On Lying”
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Actions are either classified as right or wrong with no allowance for a gray area. Furthermore, the strict guidelines tend to conflict with commonly accepted actions. For example, lying is always considered morally wrong--even a “white lie.” Therefore, one must not lie even if it does more good. In our society although individuals accept lying as being morally wrong, “white lies” have become an exception.
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Richard Gunderman asks the question, "Isn 't there something inherently wrong with lying, and “in his article” Is Lying Bad for Us?" Similarly, Stephanie Ericsson states, "Sure I lie, but it doesn 't hurt anything. Or does it?" in her essay, "The Ways We Lie.” Both Gunderman and Ericsson hold strong opinions in regards to lying and they appeal to their audience by incorporating personal experiences as well as references to answer the questions that so many long to confirm.
In “Autonomy and Benevolent Lies” Thomas Hill presents the case of benevolent lies and if they are morally troublesome. Philosophers have been debating the moral difference between a malicious lie, told in order to hurt people, and a benevolent lie. According to Hill benevolent lies are “intended to benefit the person deceived, for no ulterior motives, and they actually succeed in giving comfort without causing main” (Thomas E. Hill). Many argue that benevolent lies are no different from a malicious lie because telling a lie is morally wrong. Others argue benevolent lies and malicious lies differ because of the deliberate intentions. Hill provides the reader with three cases of a benevolent lies. The three cases he presents are the possible suicide of a student which a Professor lies to the student’s mother, the
Although it is considered wrong to tell lies, it seems that literature has offered us situations where telling lies isn’t necessarily bad. Of course, lying often has a tragic outcome, but not always for the person or people who told the lie or lies. Oftentimes, these unfortunate outcomes are directed at the person about whom the lie was told. Furthermore, these stories have explained that dishonesty can result in success for both the liar and the target. Maybe we have been teaching the wrong values to our children.
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...
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In “The Ways We Lie”, Ericsson describes the different types of lies: white lie, facades, ignoring
We lie a lot, says behavioral economist Dan Ariely. The central thesis of Dan Ariely’s The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty is that human behavior is driven by two conflicting motivations, and that most human values are not compatible all of the time. On one hand,
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