When is Lying Justified?

[Pacal]

As I see it, where we disagree is that you say there are situations where lying is good: I think that lies, by their very nature, are always wrong.

Where you perceive my "inhumanity" comes from your Christian-influenced thinking -- that something that is wrong is "sin," infinitely wrong. Right and wrong are, to me, quantitative properties, measured by their karma, not inherent properties. Things can be "a little wrong" or "a lot wrong," just as cities can be nearby or far away. With right and wrong the numbers may be more difficult to assign, and the comparisons consequently more subtle, but there are no absolutes (unless you believe in an omnipotent God that by his nature creates these absolutes, and I don't).

So you think that lying to a Nazi searching for hidden Jews is "always wrong"? The moral corruption of that comment is hilarious if your being literal. Or do you mean that although it is wrong to lie it would be even more wrong to tell the truth? In otherwords the lesser of two evils is to lie. Because telling the truth is in my opinion indisputably the "wrong" thing to do under the circumstances.

I note that for someone who claims there are no absolutes you make this rather absolute arguement:

"As I see it, where we disagree is that you say there are situations where lying is good: I think that lies, by their very nature, are always wrong."

 

[Manopolus]

Lying is justified when it is understood by the recipient (or at least intended to be understood) that you are engaging in fiction for the sake of entertainment only.

Other than that, I'd have to get into either/or positions which may sometimes be false dichotomies whether the one making the choice realizes it or not (in some cases, there isn't even enough information to identify a dichotomy as true or false in the real world... or not enough time to investigate the options). In any case, failing to tell the truth is not always lying.

... so I take such situations as they come, rather than trying to make up some silly rule outside of an actual situation. Such rules will always have exceptions, in any case -- no matter how specific you make them.

That said, I have a strong bias for truth, even when it is in my interest to lie, and even when I can justify it.

 

[DC]

"Does this make me look fat?"

indeed, mean trickquestions.