Most people would probably lie to a murderer looking for his next victim and deny knowing where the innocent person was.
But what about other situations?
I just finished reading Sissela Bok's Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life.
Bok tackles her subject from the angle of how people, since the time of the Greek philosophers, justified lying.
Some early Christian philosophers believed that lying was never justified because it put your soul in jeopardy. Their view was that it wasn't worth risking one's eternal soul just for another person's mere physical life. So, in the first example listed above, they would tell the murderer where his intended victim was.
However of all the positions she reviewed, that was the most extreme one. In general, over the ages, most people believed that there were always circumstances that justified lying.
The justifications varied widely though.
One early Greek philosopher believed that it was appropriate for a leader to lie to his subordinates. I don't remember how he pharased it and I had already returned the book -- but it was something to the effect that a ruler had the right to lie to his citizens, a general to his soldiers, and a captain to his sailors.
Fifty or so years ago, it was common for doctors and families to lie to the dying. After all, there was nothing to be done. Why make the poor dear suffer even more? For most people, that's no longer acceptable. Now the common viewpoint is that people have the right to know when their time is near so they can have the opportunity to put their affairs in order, say their goodbyes, and to reflect over their life.
In the past we had situations where:
* Social scientists lied to the people participating in their studies as to what was exactly being studied. The infamous Stanley Milgram study is just one example.
* Doctors infected people without their consent or knowledge with diseases like syphilis. For example, Dr. John Cutler in Guatemala in the 1940s; President Obama had just apologized to the Guatemalans on behalf of the US for this the other day.
As late as the year 2000, BBC news reported that unethical drug trials were being conducted in poor countries in the Third World.
Recent ABC reporting indicates that unethical medical testing may still be occurring in the third world.
We still have many people who will lie in the following situations --
* To protect their professional peers -- medical doctors for example will generally not report a fellow physician even if they have injured or killed many of their patients because of their incompetence or even addiction to drugs or alcohol.
* In a letter of recommendation for a job referral. The justification given is that if they don't inflate the candidate's capabilities -- the candidate won't be selected because everyone else is inflating their candidate's capabilities. This type of thinking also explains grade inflation, a type of lying.
* To voters. The justification is that the better policy can't be explained in the few weeks (or months) left until election and its better if the better candidate wins.
And of course lies are made by:
* Diplomats
* During times of war.
The last two situations would probably have many supporters who think that lying in those situations are justified.
Bok also mentions the utilitarian philosophy towards truth which can be summarized as: Truth is not always the greatest good and one should go with whatever does the majority the greatest good. And if that means lying, than lie.
Most people would agree that lying during times of war to the enemy is the right thing to do. But can this utilitarian philosophy towards truth be carried too far?
Here are other situations where people commonly lie:
* To children --- often the reasons given are that they can't understand the truth or because they are not capable of keeping a secret.
* To people asking questions that we believe they don't have the right to ask. (Justifications given: It's none of their business, or I've not going to give a co-worker an answer in 5 minutes when it took me thousand of dollars in tuition and years of sweat, both in school and on the job, to figure out that answer.)
* To people who have lied to us in the past (Justifications: they don't deserve the truth, and if we are truthful with liars -- in the end we will just get royally screwed.)
Bok gives additional common situations where people lie and additional justifications that philosophers and others have come up with over the millennia.
I'll hold off on summarizing Bok's conclusions. First I'd like to hear your opinions, including if you think that there are times and situations where lying can be justified and what those times and situations are. Also, if you do accept that it can be justified to lie, how do you determine what the boundaries should be?
But what about other situations?
I just finished reading Sissela Bok's Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life.
Bok tackles her subject from the angle of how people, since the time of the Greek philosophers, justified lying.
Some early Christian philosophers believed that lying was never justified because it put your soul in jeopardy. Their view was that it wasn't worth risking one's eternal soul just for another person's mere physical life. So, in the first example listed above, they would tell the murderer where his intended victim was.
However of all the positions she reviewed, that was the most extreme one. In general, over the ages, most people believed that there were always circumstances that justified lying.
The justifications varied widely though.
One early Greek philosopher believed that it was appropriate for a leader to lie to his subordinates. I don't remember how he pharased it and I had already returned the book -- but it was something to the effect that a ruler had the right to lie to his citizens, a general to his soldiers, and a captain to his sailors.
Fifty or so years ago, it was common for doctors and families to lie to the dying. After all, there was nothing to be done. Why make the poor dear suffer even more? For most people, that's no longer acceptable. Now the common viewpoint is that people have the right to know when their time is near so they can have the opportunity to put their affairs in order, say their goodbyes, and to reflect over their life.
In the past we had situations where:
* Social scientists lied to the people participating in their studies as to what was exactly being studied. The infamous Stanley Milgram study is just one example.
* Doctors infected people without their consent or knowledge with diseases like syphilis. For example, Dr. John Cutler in Guatemala in the 1940s; President Obama had just apologized to the Guatemalans on behalf of the US for this the other day.
As late as the year 2000, BBC news reported that unethical drug trials were being conducted in poor countries in the Third World.
Recent ABC reporting indicates that unethical medical testing may still be occurring in the third world.
We still have many people who will lie in the following situations --
* To protect their professional peers -- medical doctors for example will generally not report a fellow physician even if they have injured or killed many of their patients because of their incompetence or even addiction to drugs or alcohol.
* In a letter of recommendation for a job referral. The justification given is that if they don't inflate the candidate's capabilities -- the candidate won't be selected because everyone else is inflating their candidate's capabilities. This type of thinking also explains grade inflation, a type of lying.
* To voters. The justification is that the better policy can't be explained in the few weeks (or months) left until election and its better if the better candidate wins.
And of course lies are made by:
* Diplomats
* During times of war.
The last two situations would probably have many supporters who think that lying in those situations are justified.
Bok also mentions the utilitarian philosophy towards truth which can be summarized as: Truth is not always the greatest good and one should go with whatever does the majority the greatest good. And if that means lying, than lie.
Most people would agree that lying during times of war to the enemy is the right thing to do. But can this utilitarian philosophy towards truth be carried too far?
Here are other situations where people commonly lie:
* To children --- often the reasons given are that they can't understand the truth or because they are not capable of keeping a secret.
* To people asking questions that we believe they don't have the right to ask. (Justifications given: It's none of their business, or I've not going to give a co-worker an answer in 5 minutes when it took me thousand of dollars in tuition and years of sweat, both in school and on the job, to figure out that answer.)
* To people who have lied to us in the past (Justifications: they don't deserve the truth, and if we are truthful with liars -- in the end we will just get royally screwed.)
Bok gives additional common situations where people lie and additional justifications that philosophers and others have come up with over the millennia.
I'll hold off on summarizing Bok's conclusions. First I'd like to hear your opinions, including if you think that there are times and situations where lying can be justified and what those times and situations are. Also, if you do accept that it can be justified to lie, how do you determine what the boundaries should be?
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