Kendra Lawrence English 102 June 19, 2013 No Justification for Lying to your Nation In all areas of life there are times we accept lies and other times we are disgusted by them. Telling a lie isn't always a bad thing. A lie for self-serving purposes, like gains that were not earned, deserved, lies to keep yourself out of trouble, lies to put others in situations detrimental to them, are unjustified lies. Not telling the truth for unselfish reasons, for the sole purposes of helping, inspiring, giving others hope, preventing harm to others, is called a white lie. According to Wikipedia, “white lies are minor lies which could be considered to be harmless, or even beneficial, in the long term.
We cannot predict the future. You lie because you think lying can lead to a better result, although you got a virtue motivation of lying, but a wrong assumption may even put you into a much worsen situation. You can’t simply agree that lying is okay when you have a virtue starting point as you can’t guarantee a better result after lying. We cannot guarantee the result of lying, but we can guarantee one point and it is always true, lying is an act of cheating which is something “wrong”. For instance, a mother got a cancer but only her son knows.
June Tangney, psychology educator and researcher born in New York, believes that there’s another way to punish a person rather than putting them behind bars. She believes that jail time does not make a person feel guilty, where he’s obliged to feel bad about his/her actions and would want to change those behaviors but it makes him/her feel humiliated which automatically gives a false sense or certainty that person is a bad person and there is no changing that. She states that, “Punishment aimed at public humiliation certainly appeal to our sense of moral righteousness” (570) and “rather than fostering constructive change, shame often makes a bad situation worse” (570). For starters, Tangney emotional appeal was strong. Right off the back she acknowledges the opposition.
This statement can be debated. Many people tell lies to protect others, not get ourselves in trouble, and even for our own self benefit. These topics will be discussed and proven that being truthful isn’t always the right thing to do.”Like the sun”, and “The Censors” by R.K Narayan and Luisa Valenzuela, both show that by not telling the truth, it may sometimes benefit the society in the future. To begin with, “Like the sun” and “The Censors” show that lying may benefit us in the future. Protecting others is one reason people lie.
Social lies are most known as white lies, not that severe but they are still lies. Peace-keeping lies are those that are “designed to avoid irritation or argument” (Viorst 137). Protective lies are those that parents tend to tell due to the fact that “they’re convinced that the truth would be too damaging” (138). This type of lie my parents tend to use way too much to not let me know what is going on financially in the family. The fourth category of lies is trust-keeping lies, which are those that involve three people.
For example, in the case of lying, a deontologist would argue that lying is always wrong, doesn’t matter even if it holds any potential to creating a greater good. While the consequentialist would say that to lie is a wrong thing to do because it would cause negative outcomes as a result, however lying could still be allowed, knowing that it would lead to the creation of a greater good. While as for a virtue-ethicist would care less on just about lying, but focus more on what does the decision say about his/her own traits and character. So here are several features that make the theory of virtue ethics distinctive compared to the other
Taleb rarely points out data or figures in defense of his arguments and defends the same by saying that it is a mistake to use statistics without logic, but not vice versa. We underestimate the share of randomness in about everything, due to myriad biases we often tend to attribute our successes to our skills and blame bad luck for our failures. Risk taking is described as random foolishness. People are taught to think simple and that simplification is also dangerous. Thus there are two poles, extreme thinkers and simplifiers, both of whom are dangerous.
In simpler language, it means to aim for perfection. On the surface, it sounds nice, but all this ignores the basic human trait, the one shared across cultures, languages, and races: imperfection. To be human is to be errant. Thus, the dreams of idealists often get dashed and projects they attempt often end either in failure or at least "less than they could have been." On the other hand, realism means "the inclination towards literal truth and pragmatism" (ibid).
Russell claims, lying is morally wrong, Carson believes in some cases it is preferable and Mazur states that different traditions advocate the lying in different circumstances. In brief, until and unless there is a question to save the life of an innocent person lying is morally wrong because, it diminishes trust, withholds the information that one might need, weakens our relationships, and above all it obliterates our honesty. Lying is a threat to the trust of liar. Trust is like a sticker one it got dispatched then it can never be pasted again perfectly. Similarly ones if the lying is mixed with trust then a threat against trust of any relation are produced.
Although, if someone does not know that they are lying, then they would act as if the statement was actually true and there would be no signs of the lie. Signs of lying can be shown both physically by body language, interactions and reactions, and verbally by the context and content of the statement. In order for someone to admit to a lie, they must face the reality that what they are saying actually is a lie, which goes against the lying mindset. Often, people make themselves believe a lie to be true as a way to make that they are lying less noticeable. This is a way for their brain to accept the lie and is done subconsciously or purposely as a way to get through the lie.