Applied ethics - LYING Flashcards
act utilitarian view on telling lies
considers whether telling a lie creates greater happiness than telling the truth (or keeping silent). If it does, then the action is morally right, if not then its wrong
what is the issue with how act utilitarianism treats lying?
say for example your friend tells you a secret, and the happiness you get from sharing that secret an an opportune moment slightly slighty outweighs the persons pain that you shared their secret. you are then, according to act utilitarianism, morally obligated to share that secret.
what does Mill say about lying
Mill looks at more than what the immediate consequences of lying would be.
He considers a person being truthful as a great benefit to people’s happiness generally and our being able to trust what others say is not only the basis of social well-being but also a foundation of civilisation and virtue more generally.
Thus weakening either our tendency to be truthful or other peoples trust is severly damaging to happiness
therefore, to tell a lie just for the sake of convinience is morally wrong.
When does Mill say it may be permissable to lie?
when it is the only way we can withold information from someone who intends to do harm - but in such situations we must carefully consider which situations permit lying by weighinf up the conflicting utilities involved.
what does Kant say about lying?
ITS ALWAYS WRONG
How does the categorical imperative (1) mean we can never lie?
He basis it on the categorical imperative.
You cannot will ‘you should lie’ to become universal as it involves a contradiction of conception- if it was always permissible to lie, the very concept of telling a lie (saying something false while maing someone belive it is true) wouldn’t make sense.
How does the categorical imperative (2) the humanity formula say we should never lie?
Kants humanity formula is that we should never treat human beings as merely a means to an end because they are an end in themselves.
Lying, is to treat someone as a means to achieve your own end, so it is wrong.
What is Kants famous lying example
THE AXE MURDERer
Why would Kant not even tell a lie to save the universe?
for Kant, the moral worth of actions is determined by whether they are done for the sake of duty and not their consequences, so in the case of the axe murderer, it is the act/choice of telling a lie that matters more than what the potential consequences of that lie will be. He argues it is impossible to know the consequences of your actions fully.
Aristotle on lying
