The Ethics of Lying

This afternoon we met at the Kensington Library to hear Tony's talk on "The Ethics of Lying," followed by Constance's colloquy on the theme "Truth." As always, Tony regaled us with some funny one-liners and then some humorous and thought-provoking quotes on lying. Then he launched into the main body of his talk, in which he analyzed various types of lies. He spoke about bald-faced lies, where it's obvious to both parties that one of them is lying. My question would be, then why bother?

There are lies of commission and lies of omission, verbal and nonverbal lies. One example of a nonverbal lie (or deception, as one of our newcomers preferred) would be wearing the religious symbol of a religion not one's own, thus fooling people into thinking you are a member of that creed. Impersonating an officer is not only a nonverbal lie, it's a crime.

There are some lies that are "noble" and can be considered ethical since they harm no one and work to someone's benefit. An example of this might be the deception carried on by Miep Gies and the other helpers who hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis. As Tony pointed out, to decide whether a lie is ethical or unethical, you have to look at the context and the intent behind the lie.

We discussed campaign lies and lies in religious doctrine, social lies that avoid hurting feelings, and so on. Remi brought up myths and told us that sometimes children ask whether a myth is a true story. While technically it isn't because it never happened in real life, the myth can be true in another way, in that it has symbolic or emotional content that is very real. I mentioned that primates have been observed in the wild "lying" by their actions, fooling each other into believing, for instance, that there is no more food left when they don't want to share.

We took a short break and then switched gears for Constance's colloquy on "Truth." Using Dr. Arthur Dobrin's book, Spelling God With Two O's, we read a passage on Truth and a parable, and then had a Quaker-style meeting where everyone was welcome to speak up and say whatever the readings moved us to say.

Once again, our warmth, camaraderie, and thoughtful consideration of the topic made this a memorable afternoon. And that's no lie!