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Lying and morality essay
Deception morality
Lying and morality essay
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Some people think lying is okay, others think it’s not. However, those who think all lying is not okay are being hypocritical. Everyone has lied at least once in their life. Lies in general are a part of daily life. Many people lie for various reasons.One of the most common reasons is to protect someone. There are also lies used to cause harm and lies in the interest of the liar. All in all, many people agree that lying is sometimes acceptable when protecting someone from emotional, physical, and mental harm.
One of the most common examples of lying is when you’re trying not to hurt someone’s feelings. This applies to family, friends, siblings… etc. For example, in a poll taken by “Life on NBC News”, about 66% reported that it is “OK
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In “Teens Do their Share of Lying”, Tim states that lying is a “necessary life-survival skill” and that it could be the “only thing between you and a guaranteed beat down” (Ragsdell, 23). In this instance, you are lying to protect yourself so that you won’t get beat up. If you didn’t lie, you would’ve ended up getting hurt. One historical representation Brad Blanton introduces is when the Nazis were lied to because Anne Frank’s “life [was] in danger” and she was hidden (Ballinger, 11). If she was not protected and kept in secret, she most likely would’ve died. The people hiding her lied to the Nazis to keep her from getting sent to concentration camp. Obviously, lying is crucial when you’re trying to protect someone from getting injured or even …show more content…
Immanuel Kant takes an absolutist position on the subject of lying. Kant argues that "truthfulness is a duty which no circumstances can put aside" no matter the situation (Bok, 4). Kant believes that this duty upholds whether or not someone's life is on the line. Nonetheless, Kant is wrong for a different source validates that lying is sometimes okay. For instance, moral philosopher and ethic columnist, Randy Cohen, is "a big fan of lying" (NBC News, 9). Cohen claims that lying is justified and "sometimes a moral duty" (par, 10). Cohen believes lying is very important and even cased that aren't as serious sometimes call for lies. Another source also emphasizes that lying is sometimes okay. Brad Blanton states in an interview that he realizes that you "shouldn't manipulate the truth except for rare time" (Ballinger, 11). Blanton points out by telling lies, you're unnecessarily complicating your life but sometimes it is okay if you are protecting someone from possible death. Thus, lying is very important when protecting someone from harm although some people tend to
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.
Lying is bad but the fear that can come from it is worse. Fear can rule a person which drives them to extreme and irrational acts that can shape society in a negative way. We as people are so accustomed to how we should act that during times of fear and crisis our vision is blurred and sometimes our decision making abilities are impaired. We often look past at how much fear can affect us and our society. Starting from Salem 1692 and going to the McCarthy era fear ruled the people and even now in present time America we are constantly living in fear.
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.
Have you ever told a lie to protect yourself or someone you love? People lie for their own purposes. Some people lie for themselves or for their close one. They depend on the lies so much that they do not care that their lies might hurt others. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, almost all the characters lie for their own desires and to protect their own interests. Even though lies are forbidden in their religion, some people are blind to understand the punishment of lying. The concept of lying to save oneself is also evident in “Fear Was Reason For Lying About Shooting, Woman Says” by Mary Spicuzza. The article highlights how a woman hid the truth about witnessing a murder just for the sake of her own life. Another article, “The Truth
With different views on when it is OK to lie, the people continue to debate. But personally, I respect Kant’s views on the idea that lying is bad. Lying weakens the purpose to serve justice, destroys the liars’s dignity, and messes up the records. But I think that rare situations justify lies. I believe lies to save someone's life or just to protect someone from a big danger is the only type of lie that is justified. Those situations are the only times I think it is OK to lie. It might seem that lying to get yourself out of trouble is a situation that makes the lie justified. But I think that is a selfish reason for your own good and that people are thinking less about the society and more about their own good. Lying to get out of trouble is one of those many lies that are not justified.
Stephanie Ericsson’s The Ways We Lie, analyzes and reflects on how lying has simply become the norm in our society. We all lie, there is not one person in the world that does not lie. Most people lie because they are afraid of telling the truth, however what they do not know is telling a lie can lead them in the wrong direction because many things can happen when lying to a person. The person can find out when everything unravels that person will not have trust in you and you would be known as a liar. To every action there is a consequence, so why not deal with just one consequence when telling the
At the same time, however, even though people have the tendency to be dishonest, not all lies are legally prosecutable. When asked to judge another person’s appearance, for example, some tend to lie in favor of that person, just to make the person feel better. When trying to avoid doing chores, some tend to lie about being too occupied with homework. Those are what I considered to be lies in the names of politeness and laziness; lies that cause no harm to others.
We lie all the time, lying is not something new to our culture. We lie to our parents, we lie to our friends, we even lie to our significant other, but why do we do it? There is not one set reason on why we lie but they can vary from an insignificant reason to something more nefarious. A good operational definition of a lie is “A lie is a false statement to a person or group made by another person or group who knows it is not the whole truth, intentionally.” (Freitas-Magalhães) We have been raised to know that lying is usually a bad thing, and it’s better to tell the truth, not to mention the circumstances get exponentially worse if you are caught lying. No one wants to be labeled as a liar, or untrustworthy. This may sound unorthodox but I personally think lying is perfectly fine; depending on the situation. If you have a prima-facie duty to be dishonest it’s perfectly acceptable. Ross says a prima facie duty or obligation is an actual duty. “One’s actual duty is what one ought to do all things considered.” (Carson) I’m not the only one who finds this too be true. Ross would also agree with me, He says “Lying is permissible or obligatory when the duty not to lie conflicts with a more important or equal important prima facie duty.” (Carson) As I was doing research on this topic I did read one extremely compelling argument on why we ought not to lie. Aristotle basically said a person who makes a defense for lying could never be trusted. (King.)
According to Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life by Sissela Bok ". . .white lies do no harm. . .” (V, White Lies, Harmless Lying, paragraph 4) and that “Many small [and] subterfuges [that] may not even be intended to mislead” (V, White Lies, Harmless Lying, paragraph 2). Although the characters in The Boy in The Striped Pajamas and Freak the Mighty lied with good intentions to protect one another from something, yet there lies failed. In The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the mother and father lie to their son Bruno. Not telling him what his father did for a living or what the concentration camps were, didn’t protect him from it but caused him to further investigate to see for himself what was going on. This lie that his parents continually told him did not protect him it ended up killing him when exploring the concentration camp and in the end put in a gas chamber and never found again by his
I do not know of anyone who wants to be known as Pinocchio, the wooden boy who lies and in a result, makes his nose grow bigger. As an old proverb says, honesty is the best policy. I agree with being honest at all times. First, telling the truth to me, is always the right thing. When I catch someone in a lie, I just think to myself, what has come up of this world? A person’s truths and lies prove who that person is, and what that person is capable of. Second, people can earn a great deal of respect and trust from telling the truth. Now, people trust their “gut feeling”, but someone’s “gut feeling” should always be truthful. Respect is something that is earned, and at sometimes, given to people who do the things that they are supposed to do for themselves and for others. Last, most people were taught to tell the truth at a very young age. A truth is
Lying is sometimes acceptable when protecting others. Lying is also rarely acceptable to protect yourself. Lying also comes with drawbacks like backing up your lies with evidence and the feeling of regret. Lying to protect others is very common. You can see it whenever one person chooses to take the blame.
Can you remember the last time someone lied to you? Or how about the last time you lied to someone else? Did you ever stop and ask yourself why? There are so many different reasons that a person might lie. Maybe a lie about something to keep oneself out of trouble, or even a lie to impress other people. But either way there are always going to be serious consequences or effects of lying.
“‘Not only is lying justified it is a moral duty,’ says Cohan. An obvious example is when protecting from serious harm.” (Americans Conflicted About Lying 10) This quote explains that telling a lie in a certain situation can save someone from serious harm. This proves that lying is justified if there
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 ...
Lying always makes the situation worse even if it is for your good, it will always come back to hurt you.According to Immanuel Kant , “a lie ,even if it does no wrong to any particular individual,always harms mankind individually”. This proves that lying always harms someone even