Topics Ethics

Question Hi philosophers , recently a friend of mine said “it’s always best to tell the truth “ until I pointed out examples where this is obviously not true, this lead me to wondering what if we as humans had not the ability to lie ? Would the world be a better or a worse place to live? I think complete honesty amongst humans would create chaos as although admirable in many ways offence would still be taken and consequences could be dire. I imagine the anguish most men would have attempting to truthfully answer that awkward question from the wife as in “ do you think I look fat in this dress dear “?

Accepted:
February 12, 2020

Comments

Like your friend, the German

Like your friend, the German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant in “On a Supposed Right to Lie from Philanthropy” argued that it's categorically wrong to lie, even to a murderer at the door looking for someone inside. Like you, however, I think he's obviously mistaken. It would to my mind obviously be permissible to lie to Nazis at the door looking for Anne Frank, and similarly lying to slave catchers hunting people who had escaped enslavement. There also seem to be harmless, trivial, but nonetheless beneficial lies--call them lies of kindness and social lubrication, just the the sort you mention, for example. Similarly: "So nice to meet you"; and "I'm fine," certainly. Friedrich Nietzsche in a grander but not unrelated way describes in "The Birth of Tragedy" how one of the functions of art is to mask, even lie, to us about the horrifying truths about reality. Elsewhere he maintains that concepts are always bound up with at least poetic lies as well as lies maintaining power relations (an idea later that Michel Foucault would appreciate). Plato argues in "Republic" (Book 3, 414e–15c) that the good ruler may, even should, tell a "noble lie" to the people about their rootedness in the land they occupy for the sake of social cohesion and well being. From the Trojan horse to the Allies deceiving the Nazis about the location of the invasion of France to the US deceiving Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, military forces commonly use deception to advance their plans. Today there are ongoing discussions about whether the government ought to lie to us if the destruction of life on Earth were to become imminent (say because a massive asteroid is about to strike us). I'm not quite sure what I think is proper in that situation, but arguably preventing chaos and panic might be a mercy. Now, of course, there ought to be serious constraints on lying. If social interactions can succeed without white lies, avoid them. Perfidy in military conduct (e.g. by pretending to surrender or lying about the terms of surrender) is unethical. And democracy requires a government that is as transparent and truthful as possible. Remember that even Plato argued that the "lie in one's soul" is the most hateful and repugnant of things (Book 2, 382a-382d).