According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the traditional definition of lying is “to make a believed-false statement to another person with the intention that the other person believe that statement to be true” (Mahon). In other words, a big part of lying in the above definition is intent. While a person may have good intentions when they give out the truth all at once, that route may sometimes be harmful for the person being told. Truth given out in small doses is still the truth and learning the truth in small doses is better than never learning the truth at all.
Telling the truth in small doses is still telling the truth. As Confucius noted in Analect 2.15,“learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning
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“In his lectures on Pragmatism, James defends a kind of epistemic conservatism that accords with the idea that we do not need reasons for our beliefs when there are no challenges to them to be defeated.” (Hookway). Such was the case in By the Waters of Babylon. They believed that New York was the land of the Gods. Because they had no other rational explanation for the destruction that had happened so long ago, that was the only truth they knew. Their belief went unchallenged. However, John’s desire to learn the truth was evidenced when he said “If I went to the Place of the Gods, I would surely die, but, if I do not go, I could never be at peace with my spirit again” (Benet). In order to be at peace with his spirit, John was willing to risk life and limb in order to learn the truth. He found challenges to his beliefs. When he expressed his desire to share the whole truth immediately with the people, his father discouraged him telling him that “Truth is a hard deer to hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of the truth. It was not idly that our fathers forbade the Dead Places” (Benet). John’s father was advising him that rushing to tell the whole truth to their people could be very dangerous because their ancestors must have had a good reason for not doing so in the first place. Even though John’s discovery was a truth, it was possible that it was not the whole truth. Taking the time to learn what happened
Lying can save you in severe situations such as life or death. Elie lied about his age and said he was eighteen instead of fifteen. “‘Your age?’ he asked, perhaps trying to sound paternal. ‘I'm eighteen.’ My voice was trembling.” (Wiesel 31). Not telling exact information to strangers about yourself can prevent bad things from happening. He told the doctor he was sick so he didn’t have to get his crown taken. His crown could buy him an extra ration of bread and soup, so he decided it’d be smart to keep it. He said he was a farmer because it could save him from being killed immediately. Lying is one of many ways that can help people survive in certain situations.
Benjamin Franklin’s book, Poor Richard’s Almanac, is full of advice. One of those quotes was “A lie stands on one leg, truth on two.”. This is a very wise saying and offers the reader excellent advice about lying.
Growing up, my mom always taught me to always tell the truth, one of the first times that I can remember this was really stressed to me is when I was just a young boy. At the time I was a trouble maker and would always altercate the truth to save myself from getting in trouble. I thought that this was the most ingenious thing because I could get away with anything by just telling these little “white lies”. In history these small lies can make huge impacts on the path that we take to move forward. For example, a native American figure in history that went by the name Acorn Whistler victimized others by lying and finally fell victim to it himself. Now Is lying just something we as humans do to get what we want or is there a deeper ethos behind
Lying is known as a bad thing, but sometimes it can be used for good. Dishonesty just depends on how you utilize it. In the story, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain you will see lying happening very often. When Huckleberry Finn lies it is usually for a good purpose. While the king and duke use it for more greedy reasons.
In colonizing the New World, Captain John Smith and William Bradford were both significant figures. Smith was an explorer and solider known for establishing the first permanent English colony in the New World at Jamestown, Virginia. Bradford was a Puritan who was fixed on setting up a colony where people could practice their religion freely. What makes them so alike and different?
There comes a time in every persons life where they feel a burning sensation to lie, but is it worth it? Don’t they feel the shame and the guilt of that lie? On average, people lie between ten to two hundred times a day. But doesn't all of that lying come with a lot of conflict and trouble? The more that you lie the more conflict arises by avoiding truth then if it were to be faced head-on.
As we all know, lying is a constant part of many people’s lives, whether they realize it or not. Now and then, we’ve all lied to our parents about our homework being completed. (Even though your homework is not done because playing video games or texting your friends is more interesting.) Honestly, lot’s of us have told a lot of white lies or maybe even a whopper of a lie, and we all have varied views on when we should or shouldn 't lie. Such as Brad Blanton, an author of a book about lying and the article, “Honestly, Tell the Truth” who believes in the concept of radical honesty: telling the truth at all times. (excluding a matter of life or death) By cutting out the white lies we tell throughout the course of our lives, there will be less lies to, as Blanton states “unnecessarily complicate our lives.” I agree with Blanton and his opinion that we honestly need to tell the truth and that if we cut out most if the lies we tell, our lives will be free of the aftermath of a lie: damaged relationships and unnecessary amounts of stress. I believe that lying is burdening to the liar who usually fights a losing battle, for he will most likely be found out. I also believe that if we excessively lie, this pattern will become a habit and a problem that will be hard to get rid of in the future. I consider lying to be harmful and damaging to relationships and to negatively affect your character and lower your moral standards. Everyone has lied occasionally, if not frequently, but if
A lie is considered a false statement given to fool someone. At some point throughout the day everyone will stretch the truth. Are lies just really some version of the truth or are they bold and deliberate? Lying is discussed in-depth in "The Ways We Lie" by Stephanie Ericsson and in the article "Is Lying Bad for Us" by Richard Gunderman. The two articles discuss the types of lies, reasons people lie and the consequences suffered by all. It can be determined after reading the texts that lying causes undue stress and telling the truth is beneficial in more ways than one.
The main focus of this paper is to show the connections between aggression and peer rejection and the effects it has on an adolescent whether it be directly or indirectly. One of the most influential aspects for self-esteem in adolescence is social acceptance from peers which helps to endorse a positive sense of self-worth which is linked to effective coping (McMahan, 2009). When an adolescent is rejected by his or her peers, aggression is probable to occur. The most frequent type of aggression, especially in girls, is relational aggression. Relational aggression is trying to hurt someone by verbally attacking them or their social relations through gossip or exclusion (McMahan, 2009).
The society our nation lives in today has developed morals and principles through the lessons experienced from the past. The Roaring Twenties was a time of change and a chance to pave a path for the person you wanted to become. Morals and principles served as guidelines rather than rules and were merely preached that practiced. Thus, the severity of the immoral actions taking place created opportunities for lessons to be learned. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrated various moral lessons through the downfall and corruption of various characters based on their immoral actions. The narrator, Nick Carraway is a young man who throughout the
It is said that honesty is the best policy in our world, that we have to always tell the truth no matter the circumstances. Although it is a standard everyone wishes to uphold, we are well aware that it’s a lie we tell ourselves everyday. Lying itself can be tricky, blunt, or downright malicious depending on its intended use. It can be the existence of Santa to explain why there are neatly wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree, it can be the kind comment made towards the ugly colors your friend had chosen for her room, or even the denial of eating the last slice of chocolate cake in the fridge. In retrospect, everyone lies as the concept of a completely honest life is an impossible feat to accomplish and those who say otherwise are already
Lying could be both bad or good, but it depends on the reason. Lying is often used with trying to stay alive. For example, in Night, an inmate told both Elie and his father to lie about their ages, in the text it says, ¨´Hey, kid, how old are you?´ The man interrogating me was an inmate. I could not see his face, but his voice was weary and warm. ´Fifteen.´ ´No. You're eighteen´ ´But I'm not,´ I said. ´I´m fifteen.´ ´Fool. Listen to what I say.´...´ I'm fifty.´ ´No.´ The man now sounded angry. ´Not fifty. You're forty. Do you hear? Eighteen and forty´¨(Wiesel 30). This shows that they had to lie or else they may not have even been able to work in the concentration camps that they were
“The truth is always an insult or a joke, lies are generally tastier. We love them. The nature of lies is to please. Truth has no concern for anyone's comfort” Katherine Dunn perfectly describes what attracts us to lies from a quote in her book Geek Love. Most people lie to help themselves make it through day to day life. If people lie all the time, can all that lying really have an immense effect? Delays for telling the truth is not always a bad thing.While some lies are more helpful to some people more than others. Lies can make people seem untrustworthy, although lies help protect innocence, maintain self-esteem, and prevent harm from yourself or others.
Lying the one form of communication that is the untruth expressed to be the truth. Immanuel Kant states that lying is morally wrong in all possible ways. His hatred for lying has made him “just assumed that anyone who lied would be operating with a maxim like this: tell a lie so as to gain some benefit.”(Landau,pp.171) This is true for a vast number of people, they will lie in order to gain a certain benefit from the lie rather than the truth.It is similar to if you play a game of truth or dare, some rather pick a dare because it would release them from having to tell the truth. However, those who do pick truth still have a chance to lie to cover up the absolute truth.People lie in order to cover who they truly are. Even if you lie to benefit someone or something else, it would not matter to Kant because he does not care for the consequences. If you lie but have a good intention it is not the same for Kant, he would argue that you still lied no matter the consequence that a lie is a lie. “ While lying, we accuse others for not being transparent. While being hypocrites ourselves, we expect others to be sincere.” (Dehghani,Ethics) We know how it feels to be lied to by a person, so in order to not have the feeling returned, we hope the person will be truthful. We rather be surrounded by truthful people constantly despite all the lies that some people tell. No
Most people call it “A Little White Lie,” but is it really as little as they say it is? A little white lie is like an ant bite, it starts off as a small little bite, but the more you pick and scratch at it the bigger it gets. Just like that little lie. Lies are not the best habit, even though they may help you in a situation, they can also send you flying into an iceberg, sending them farther downwards in their lie, like the titanic being dented up then sunk to the ocean floor. I know I have lied multiple times in my life, especially when I was younger, therefore I have learned from every lie. Why lie when you can bend the truth? Emily Dickerson states in her poem, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” Some people might tell the truth but not the whole truth, that is what you would call and half-truth. A half-truth is a statement that conveys only part of the truth, especially one used deliberately in order to deceive someone. Some people may find that the half-truth would be more deceiving then just a lie, because people will find out the whole truth and it is not always a h0000appy ending. Other people find that both of the decisions are very dangerous situations. Even though the truth can hurt, some people want to hear it so that they can learn to overcome and or learn from it.