The truth matters, and there is no aspect of our life where it can't be argued that the truth matters. The truth matters physically because however elusive and/or unnecessary the truth might seem, it has a very real effect on the world and the way the world changes. While that change might be insignificant at the time, it can very easily snowball if that falsehood is allowed to persist. The truth matters mentally because if you don't at least have a misconception of the truth then life will become harder for you, it is also important mentally because a falsehood could potentially skew your opinions and beliefs. The truth matters morally because it is a betrayal of trust to tell a lie, a falsehood, even unintentional, could cause great emotional and mental damage to the person or people it was told to. The truth matters socially because the lie can harm a relationship if the falsehood festers, causing them to doubt you if found out. Ignorance is bliss, and while it is often the easy thing to jump to conclusions and the truth be darned, the truth is usually easier to determine if you don't start with an answer in mind. …show more content…
That is up to each person to decide for themselves. What I know is that white lies depend on the truth. The truth is important to keep in mind when telling the lie so that it isn't given away immediately. It is important so that the lie isn't so different that it causes harm to the person the white lie is told too. Like if someone asks if their clothes look alright, the easy thing and common thing to do is to say that they do, whether or not that they do. Now if they were going to use those clothes to try and get a job or something of similar important, then yes the truth does matter for that person. It is also important for the person telling the white lie so that you know when your white lies turn out to be more harmful than
White lies are usually used to prevent the hurting of someone’s feelings. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Christopher’s father uses white lies to deceive Christopher without establishing more questions about Christopher’s mother's flee. In everyday life, people lie extremely often, causing it to be difficult to tell when someone is actually lying. According to Pamela Meyer, “Lying's complex. It's woven into the fabric of our daily and our business lives. We're deeply ambivalent about the truth...We're against lying, but we're covertly for it in ways that our society has sanctioned for centuries and centuries and centuries. It's as old as breathing. It's part of our culture, it's part of our history.”(Meyer 4:59) In fact, the reason behind Christopher believing his father’s lies is because they are familiar in a way. Ed lies to Christopher, because of habit more than to protect anyone. Although, Christopher’s father used mostly white lies to protect Christopher from the harsh truth, he does it because of the emotion that goes along with them. Even though Christopher has a difficult time showing emotion he becomes upset. According to Paul Ekman in Lying and Deception, “Lies are also betrayed by signs of emotions. The simplest case is one in which the liar attempts to convincingly fabricate an emotion that is not felt. Few people are very good at this, although most of the time people get away
The White Lie is a harmless or trivial lie, especially one told to avoid hurting someone’s feeling and it is used between Abigail and John. Lie is to speak falsely or utter untruth knowingly, as with intent to deceive and lying connects to power because people are empower
Ericsson's article is clearly about the way people lie, mainly whether the manner in which people lie to others is to make the other’s life easier or their own life easier. People lie every day, whether in simple white lies or more complex lies. Ericsson describes white lies, the most popular lies. She uses an example, how a friend told her another friend looked good when, in fact, she did not look good. People use these types of lies daily to avoid confrontation. “The liar deciding what is best for the lied to” (Ericsson #). Anyone can use them, children to parents, friend to friend, students to teachers, boyfriend to girlfriend, etc. A white lie is a good way to keep oneself out of trouble. Ericsson thinks white lies are so common because the truth is more dangerous than a simple lie. However, the lie may seem simple and part of daily life, but Ericsson points out that it is not always so simple. Telling a white lie may benefit to you in the short term, but if for a...
First Ericsson discuss white lies, she describes white lies as when a person “assumes that the truth will cause more damage than a simple, harmless untruth” (Ericsson 181). A person decides that it is better to tell the lie rather than to tell the truth because of how they perceive the outcome will be. Ericsson believes that people should not use white lies because they’re “[deciding] what is best for someone else” (Ericsson 181). When people use white lies they’re assuming that what they are doing is good for the other person, even if they do not know for sure that the other person will benefit from not knowing. On the other hand in the book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon, the main character, Christopher does not believe in lying but he uses white lies. Christopher says, “A white lie is not a lie at all. It is where you tell the truth but you do not tell all of the truth” (Haddon 48). In this situation, Christopher’s
It can occur without their direct knowledge. “White lies” are told because they aren’t seen as “real” lies, only small fibs. The reasons as to why people tell “white lies” depend on the person and event. That being said, some people tell these lies in order to fix the situation at hand. As stated in an article named “White Lies in Interpersonal Communication”, “Lies may be the most common form of duplicity used by man (Bak, 1978). Most of us find ourselves ‘telling white lies more or less regularly’ (Boyers, 1974:151), often treating the lie as the most efficient solution to interpersonal communication problems (Knapp, Hart, & Dennis, 1974).” (Camden, Motely, Wilson 309). This article states that people tell “white lies” all the time and it’s in order to regulate communication problems. Other times, people think they are telling the truth, when in reality, they are not. People with mental disabilities can find it hard to keep ideas straight in their minds. This can cause people with these types of issues to lie without meaning to. In CIDN, Christopher has a conversation with a policeman when trying to run away to his mom. He was upset with his father after finding out he had lied to him about his mom being dead. Christopher says, “‘I’m going to see Mother… I have a cashpoint card.’” (150). He forgets to mention that he has stolen the card from his father and is running away to see his mom. This way,
In today’s society, everyday people struggle with telling the truth. As you grow into a young adult, one thing that many kids are told is that a “white lie” is much different compared to a lie. Although everyone knows that this ultimately is not true, it’s become such a normal act that people tend to just go along with it. Many people try to justify this immoral action by claiming that they are using their lies for good, instead of evil. But it is often hard to know at what point a lie becomes an irreversible, cruel action, as opposed to an alternate explanation.
A little white lie can turn out to be a massive big lie. In the book of,” The Pretty Little Liars”, after the girl’s secrets have been revealed and the town knew their lies that the girls had told, people around town started adding more and more to their lies. Yes, its true people tend to add more on to people lies it might be for a bad cause but rarely for a good cause. Once the lie has been spread out in full depth with details that are too good to be true there’s no way going back because that’s what the lie leads people to believe, imagine when you tell the truth, great disappointment. So, imagine a friend of yours said that he read an article online of the new upcoming iPhone but it hasn’t been described how it’s going to look yet. So you decide to tell another friend about it and then you add to it and explain how it’s going to have its own stand case and a light up logo, you just started a lie. So now your friend believes the iPhone is going to have what you described, now your friend believes that, now one of his friends comes along and he describes the same thing you said and then adds more details to the phone, the cycle of lies goes on and on. Then it’s time the brand new IPhone comes out and all your friends are confused and disappointed because the iPhone didn’t come out as
Lying ends up hurting other people. One can see this when Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, lying is a big part of serious
White lies are defined as diplomatic or well-intentioned deception. There are many different types of white lies that are told, such as, lies of flattery for example; if someone gives another person a gift and the gift was not what the person wanted, this person would reply “thank you so much! I just love it!” This type of white lie is told because telling someone that their gift was undesirable would make the teller look like an inconsiderate being.
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
According to Sternberg (1999), memory is the extraction of past experiences for information to be used in the present. The retrieval of memory is essential in every aspect of daily life, whether it is for academics, work or social purposes. However, many often take memory for granted and assume that it can be relied on because of how realistic it appears in the mind. This form of memory is also known as flashbulb memory. (Brown and Kulik, 1977). The question of whether our memory is reliably accurate has been shown to have implications in providing precise details of past events. (The British Psychological Association, 2011). In this essay, I would put forth arguments that human memory, in fact, is not completely reliable in providing accurate depictions of our past experiences. Evidence can be seen in the following two studies that support these arguments by examining episodic memory in humans. The first study is by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) who found that memory can be modified by suggestions. The second study is by Naveh-Benjamin and Craik (1995) who found that there is a predisposition for memory to decline with increasing age.
The way we are brought up or the nurture aspect of our lives shape the way our perception is today. “Truth” is what we are taught to be the “truth”. Usually ‘truth” is deemed to be real and most of the time a positive gesture. Sometimes the “truth” is not always something that is positive but it is always preferred over a lie. “Truth” is subjective, while lies are what deviate from our social norm of “truth”.
What exactly is truth? What is true? These questions are two completely different questions. In order to answer what is true, you must first determine what truth actually is. If we look in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, we see the definition that says “The things that are true”. This is not what we are looking for in a definition of this word, but really there is no defining line between what is true, and what is not.
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 ...
Truth can be defined as conformity to reality or actuality and in order for something to be “true” it must be public, eternal, and independent. If the “truth” does not follow these guidelines then it cannot be “true.” Obviously in contrary anything that goes against the boundaries of “truth” is inevitably false. True and false, in many cases does not seem to be a simple black and white situation, there could sometimes be no grounds to decide what is true and what is false. All truths are a matter of opinion. Truth is relative to culture, historical era, language, and society. All the truths that we know are subjective truths (i.e. mind-dependent truths) and there is nothing more to truth than what we are willing to assert as true (Hammerton, Matthew). A thing to me can be true while for the other person it may not be true. So it depends from person to person and here the role of perception comes into play. As truth is a vital part of our knowledge, the distinctions between what is true and what is false, shape and form the way we think and should therefore be considered of utmost importance. We often face this situation in real life through our learning curves and our pursuit of knowledge to distinguish between what is true and what is false. The idea of there being an absolute truth or also known as universal truth has been debated for centuries. It depends on many factors such as reason, perception and emotion.