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Definition essay about honesty
Concept of honesty
Definition essay about honesty
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Imagine this! You and your friend are about to go to a party. However, your friend isn’t dressed up so satisfying. They ask you, “ Do I look good?” What would you say? I firmly believe that lying is unacceptable in our society.
To live a life of lying can ruin trust in relationships. For example, in the article,” Honestly Tell the Truth,” it states,” Many people think they are telling the truth, but they don’t because they withhold information,” says Brad Blanton (5). Even if you think you’re telling the truth you might not, you can be adding stuff that didn’t happen. Blanton wants you to have the audacity to be honest and have a relationship based on reality. In addition, in the same article it states,” I have Republican friends who I play
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golf with, and I’m not afraid to tell them when I think they’re being idiots,” says Blanton. (5) What he is trying to say is don’t be timid to be honest. If they don’t like when you're honest then they aren’t friends. This is why lying can havoc relationships. Lying is never allowable because it makes a person less of a human being.
For example, in the article,” Rejecting All Lies,” it states that a lie always harms mankind and the liar.(Brad,4) This can ruin the liars dignity and make him or her feel worthless. This is what lying can do to you. In addition, in the same article it states,” To be called a liar is a moral insult, it can cause harm, maybe even for legal action or duel, to be proved a liar could lead to self-exile, out of shame,” says Immanuel Kant 18th century German philosopher. (4) He’s trying to tell us that lying can cause self-harm when called a liar. This is why he rejects all lies. As a result, this is why lying makes you less of a human being.
Some people may argue that lying is ok to protect someone’s feelings. Those who believe say, that if your friend is wearing an ugly dress and they ask you if they look superb. You would say,”Yes,” right? This argument is wrong because if they go out with that same dress on and they get made fun of they will blame it on you. This is why you should tell the truth, not blunt but nicely so you can keep friendships and relationships.
Lying isn’t welcome in our world. Losing trust in relationships because of lying. Lying isn’t OK because it makes people feel less of a person. Lying can ruin your
life.
In the beginning of “The Ways we Lie”, Ericsson begins by lying to the bank, her client, and even her partner. What would have happened if she had decided to tell the truth? Well Ericsson tried going a week without lying and this is what happened, “The bank charges me $60 in overdraft fees, my partner keels over when I tell him about my travails, my client fire me for telling her I didn’t feel like being on time, and my friend takes it personally when I say I’m not hungry” (Ericsson). The truth is being honest can hurt just as badly as telling a lie. Ericsson lists several ways that people lie, “The White Lie, Facades, Ignoring the Plain Facts, Deflecting, Omission, Stereotypes and Clichés, Groupthink, Out-and-Out Lies, Dismissal, Delusion” which are just a few ways that we lie. Ericsson successfully makes her case, “Sure I lie, but it doesn’t hurt anything. Or does it”. By incorporating personal experiences in her essay, which she demonstrates moments where she has been a liar and a candid person her audience is able to accept reality. Yes lying is bad of course it is, but “We lie. We all do” whether it hurts someone or not is simply a matter of how it’s being told. As Ericsson confirmed through her one week of honesty, “it’s not easy to eliminate lying completely from our
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.
The article “Rejecting All Lies: Immanuel Kant by Sissela Bok also presents the same argument. Sissela Bok presents the ideas and viewpoints of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher. Kant believed that lying was bad and that “truthfulness is statements which cannot be avoided is the formal duty of an individual to everyone, however great may be the disadvantage.” He believed lying was always bad no matter the situation. Kant said that lying “vitiates the source of law,” or makes the source of law weaker. Our whole purpose of the government is to serve justice and if everyone is lying in court, it gets harder to serve justice. The purpose of the government would not be fulfilled if people lie. According to Kant, lying also “harms the liar himself, by destroying his human dignity and making him more worthless even than a small thing.” Kant says lying makes the liar lose his or her pride and honor. And I think it probably makes the liar feel bad and makes them feel guilty. In the article “Teens Do their Share of Lying” by Loretta Ragsdell, a quote from Sabrina, a college freshman, takes about how she lied...
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, lying means to tell an account of an untrue event or give false information.
Lying doesn’t only hurt the relationship, but it mostly hurts the person who is being lied to, emotionally.
Throughout life, people are faced with moral decisions that will impact not only themselves but also, the people they surround themselves with. One of these moral decisions people encounter daily is truthfulness in their actions and words. In Blackburn’s novel, “Being Good”, he states “It is not easy to find a stable attitude to the stringency of the prohibition of lying.” I agree with his quote because everyone tends to lie no matter the magnitude of the lie, in order to protect themselves and the people they care about. Although Blackburn believes it is only ethical to lie on occasion, German philosopher, Immanuel Kant affirms that lying is always morally wrong, no matter what the situation is. Though lying can be seen as a deplorable action,
The article, “Is Lying Bad for Us,” accurately describes the intentions of a “liar.” The author says, “Though liars do not tell the truth, they care about it, while the bullshitter does not even care about the truth and seeks merely to impress” (Gunderman). This statement proves that lying should not be viewed as out of the ordinary, or unacceptable, and that liars should not be viewed as bad people. Lying can be shown as a way of protecting or caring
Problems are already enough to deal with, but lies only create more lies and make it much more complicated to explain. No relationship wants to get to the point in which you can’t trust one another. Once you get to that point then there really is no point of continuing the relationship. The trust has to be built all over again, it’s like starting from day one. In the article, May Loftus makes an interesting statement, in which I completely agree with, “Hiding information about expensive purchases, risky investments or debts that have accumulated to the point of crisis… can explode when triggered by outside events” Sooner than later lies get discovered and no explanation can cover the fact that the other person wasn’t trusted with the truth. A small lie can trigger more lies and only leads to one big lie. It’s like the ripple effect, lie after lie to cover up but in reality it’s only creating something much bigger and worse. “Money is the opportunity to feel betrayed” (Mary Loftus, 99) Being lied to is one of the top ways in which someone can feel betrayed. If you have committed to spend the rest of your life with someone else you should have no reason to lie about your salary or the purchases you made. Something so small shouldn’t get in the way of a marriage or any
Whether we like to admit it or not, keeping secrets that should be let out into the light are lies that can damage relationships. Actions like these will likely cause a lack of trust in relationships, which exemplifies why lying is always harmful to any relationship. According to Daily Mail, men lie about six times a day, while women lie three times a day. Out of these numbers, it is certain one will recognize at least a single lie. Studies have shown that when one lies, the brain has to remember everything that it said. Taxing the brain causes trauma, such as stress. Law enforcement investigators are trained to ask the liar to repeat the scenario or lie backwards to see if they are actually telling the truth. Moreover, lying is just
Webster’s Dictionary defines a lie as an intentionally false statement. However, defining a simple three-letter word is not as easy as it seems on the surface. Upon reading or hearing the word lie, people are instantly associated with a general feeling of negativity. Lying generally creates feelings of dishonesty, untrustworthiness, deceit, and betrayal. However, lying is one of the oldest human social practices. Erin Bryant explains in her essay “Real Lies, White Lies, and Gray Lies” that even though lying has a derogatory label, it is a very common social behavior used by a majority of people on a daily basis. It has been a subject of scrutiny through the millennia by philosophers such as St. Augustine, Aristotle, and Plato. Can lies also be seen as positive? Don’t lies contribute to maintaining the bedrock of most relationships? In his essay “Lies, Lies, Lies,” Paul Gray answers this question. “Most ‘little white lies’ belong here, well-intentioned deceptions designed to grease the gears of society. In this context people want to be fooled. No one expects and few would welcome, searing honesty at a dinner party”.
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.)
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
It's actually easier to just tell the truth. There are many reasons for this. One reason is, people don't have to think of lame excuses, making it much faster. Another reason is, people who tell the truth won't get in as much trouble when someone finds out that they lied to them.
To begin, sometimes it is better to lie rather than telling the truth and hurting someone’s feelings. It is not wrong when you tell a little white lie to keep someone you care about from getting hurt. To be specific, if your friend asked you how you feel about her hair, and you do not like it, you would not want to tell her that. Instead of telling the truth, and hurting her fragile feelings, you would rather say a little lie, telling her that you love it. If you are lying to keep someone you care about from getting their feelings hurt, or their pride wounded, then what is the harm? In conclusion, there is nothing wrong with telling small lies, if you are doing it with someone’s best interest in mind.