Lying

The definition of lying is not uncontroversial. Some restrict it to intentionally saying what one believes to be false with the intention of getting someone else to believe that falsehood to be true, usually for some benefit to oneself resulting from the deception. Others regard this as too narrow as it does not include intentionally leading someone to believe what is false other than by saying the false oneself. In response to a Gestapo group going from house to house in search of innocent Jews a homeowner hiding some of them in the cellar of an outhouse might reply ‘No’ to the question ‘Are there any Jews here?’. If ‘here’ is understood restrictively then what he says is true but of course he expects the Gestapo to understand it more broadly. There is also the practice of saying less where more is expected again with the aim of withholding the truth. However one defines lying or deception there is an assumption that these are to be avoided as somehow bad, even if they may sometimes be excusable as in the idea of a little ‘white’ lie, or a lesser evil. There are two broad approaches to the moral issues of lying. One sees it as a matter of what is generally beneficial or harmful, arguing that we depend on people telling the truth when asked to do so. The other believes there is something wrong about lying independently of its consequences. Some think this is because it ‘perverts’ the function of declarative speech which is to say what one believes is true. Others hold that it is because it involves denying people what they have a right to and so is a kind of theft ‘stealing the truth from them’.