Lying By Sissela Bok Summary

For example, in the article,”The U.S Political campaign” it states Anna Frank survived as long as she did because people lied.(1) Since the people lied Anna Frank survived. This shows that lying can save a life. In addition, Harold Smith, 64, lied to his daughter about his health. He states,”why get her all traumatized? I tried to protect her.”(3) Since Smith lied to his daughter, she didn’t have to worry. This is showing an example of someone protecting others from harm. In conclusion, lying can be acceptable when people stay safe.

The relationship between the liar and the duped can be considerably more complex on international levels or between a government official and a civilian, than on more casual interpersonal levels, between spouses perhaps. In many ways politics and deception are seen as synonymous by the constituents, particularly if they feel they have been deceived by politicians in the past. Even philosophers such as Machiavelli and Plato not only allowed for instances when lying might be moral, but they suggested lying was an indispensable tool for a ruler to adequately control his subjects. There are also more contemporary theorists who believe that lying is an essential part of politics, such as Hannah Arendt. In her writings Truth and Politics, Arendt states that, “Lies have always been regarded as necessary and justifiable tools not only of the politician’s or the demagogue’s but also of the statesman trade”(Arendt 1). If deception has always been part of politics and will remain unavoidably prevalent, should politicians be considered justified in lying, whether it be to foreign politicians or to a politician or citizen of their own

Sissela Bok’s Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life focuses around the ethical implications around lying and examines situations when it is appropriate or inappropriate to lie. Bok’s philosophy is unique among many philosophers in that she takes an approach that recognizes that people will lie and that there are certain situations in which lying may be warranted or acceptable depending on the situation at hand and who is responsible for lying. I believe that this is a more realistic expectation of human society. In this paper, I will examine Bok’s reasoning and apply it to possible situations in my professional career that will require me to examine my ethical responsibility around lying. In addition to Bok’s book, I

William Shakespeare once said, “God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.” Lying is without a doubt never justifiable because lying can lead into even greater conflicts that might never be resolved additionally lying would ruin someone’s reputation; one might argue that lying can be justifiable under one circumstance which is that lying can protect people from danger; however, lying can make someone lose people’s trust.

Furthermore, it is justified to lie in order to prevent hurting someone. Most people are familiar with the white lies we tell to avoid an argument or just to make others feel better. These lies can be found in the article “It’s the Truth: Americans Conflicted About Lying”, published by NBCNews.com. Within this article, people are asked about their opinions on when it is okay to lie. It states, “In the AP-Ipsos poll, 65 percent

Lying to protect someone or their feelings is sometimes justified, while the other types of lies are not. In the article, “It’s the Truth: Americans Conflicted About Lying” by Life on NBCNEWS.com, a noted ethics columnist, Randy

This paper discusses the issue of truth telling in nursing and the concept of therapeutic lying in order to avoid harming the patient. It also provides a personal example of the challenges involved in disclosing bad news for nursing students.

Lying is a bad thing to do, most of the time. But are there cases in which lying is the right thing to do?

Lying is certainly appropriate in some situations. People lie all the time. I find it necessary to lie all the time. I lie about my age. I lie to girls about how successful I am. I lie on my job applications. When an application asks if I have ever been convicted of a felony I always check no. I find that most people do not even do a background check. Maybe some employers don’t care because who doesn’t have a past history of doing something they feel bad about or regret.

I feel that telling lies is not acceptable for the following reasons. Lying is not the right thing to do in a bad situation. If someone is talking behind your back, you would want someone to tell you what they are saying. If that person lies to you, you think of a different perspective then of what the situation actually is. If you confront the person who’s talking behind your back and it turns out to be a different story, the situation is going to get worse because that person who told you about the

My viewpoint follows the principle of deontology. There is no excuse for lying. “Lying is a hurtful act of disrespect and thus should not be done” (Mosser, 2011, Ch. 5, p. 15). Once again, this belief is due to religious beliefs that lying is wrong. The utilitarian viewpoint of lying is acceptable if it benefits the greatest good for the greatest number of people is a weak argument. What about those people that do not benefit? Do they not matter? I believe that everyone can contribute. Thomas Plante, Ph. D. a professor with Santa Clara University has this to say on the subject, “When it comes to making ethical decisions we need to balance the pros and cons of using multiple approaches to ethics in order to figure out what the right thing to do really is. Sometimes different ethical approaches conflict. When they do, certain values or approaches must trump others. So, compassion might trump honesty on occasion” (Plante, 2011). While this viewpoint is utilitarian, there are many valid points. However, I always believe that honesty is the best policy to save any future repercussions such as a lost friendship, or a legal dispute. I also believe there are ways to get around lying to keep someone’s feelings from being hurt. Using such phrases as “it’s in God’s hands, we’ll see, and simply “I can’t tell you” are good ways to avoid the question, or to answer without 100%

All we ever knew is laws and rules, growing up we obeyed our parents rules, teachers, school, work, our state laws. Laws and rules is something our life revolves around, we were raised to follow it or else there would be consequences for us to face, whether it be a small one or big. But there are rules that seem quite ridiculous and outraging--this is where our morals come into action, we start to question it, does it seem fair? Just because something is legal it does not make it right, we know if something is ethical or not. Lying is legal but it's unethical, we live in a world where it's illegal to pierce a minor's ear without the parents consent but it's legal to get an abortion without the parents permission or consent. Being legal

'Introduction The purpose of this paper is to explain what the Bible states about personal responsibility and confessions. I will describe a current situation that I am a part of and will describe my understanding of why the conflict happened. What does the Bible say about Personal responsibility and confession? God, the Almighty continues to challenge and test my thoughts and actions.

The question of what constitutes morality is often asked by philosophers. One might wonder why morality is so important, or why many of us trouble ourselves over determining which actions are moral actions. Mill has given an account of the driving force behind our questionings of morality. He calls this driving force “Conscience,” and from this “mass of feeling which must be broken through in order to do what violates our standard of right,” we have derived our concept of morality (Mill 496). Some people may practice moral thought more often than others, and some people may give no thought to morality at all. However, morality is nevertheless a possibility of human nature, and a

Telling the truth is something that comes up for the majority of us in childhood. It is considered impolite to lie and when a lie was told, or you were untruthful, it was often considered a reflection of your parents’ moral attitudes. Unfortunately, we all seem to have been taught differently the exact nature of a truth or lie and the right or wrong way to use that information. In To Lie or Not to Lie? – The Doctor’s Dilemma (2007), the topic of truth versus lies by doctors specifically, is discussed. While I believe it is important for doctors to be truthful in their dealings with patients, the 5 W’s need to be explored: what and to whom is truth, how and when