On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense Summary

Merriam-Webster defines truth as “the property of being in accord with fact or reality.” With one universe, which follows a definite set of laws, only one reality exists. Therefore, with one reality, only one, absolute truth exists. In recent years, with “social progress,” truth has been under attack. Many are not willing to accept the truth as it is, as they view absolute fact as offensive and emotionally damaging. People are told that truth is relative; they are encouraged to tailor the truth to their opinions, not accept truth as fact. Truth decays from black and white, yes and no, to an infinite spectrum of gray area. In this gray area, as nothing is absolute, nothing truly exists, as everything becomes personal interpretation. Truth is not merely being in accord with reality, it is reality itself and without truth, tyranny rules over relationships, life, the value of life, the perception of society, and justice.

In “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense”, one of many things that Friedrich Nietzsche argues is that humans do not really hate lying, but they do hate the bad consequences that come with lying. He states, “What they hate is basically not deception itself, but rather the unpleasant, hated consequences” (453). Nietzsche explains that lying is useful and we as humans all make use this tool. We seem to ignore the fact that we are lying when it benefits us, although we do not accept the use of this tool when it has a bad effect on society, or on ourselves.

According to Nietzsche, humans thrive and depend on knowing the truth. This prideful characteristic actually blinds men to the true worth of their existence, which they do not realize because they are so consumed by wanting to be able to discern between truths and lies (80).

Nietzsche says that all truths are “errors” that human beings find useful. He states that “Truth is the kind of error without which a certain species of life could not live. The value of life

But he goes deeper and tries to determine the origin of truths. Morally, truth “is the duty to lie according to a fixed convention” (Nietzsche 4). But humans prefer rationality over morality. Rationally, to describe a truth would require clearly marked limits and a complete rewriting of existing laws and social constructs, all to create a more regulatory world where we could observe truth. On top of that, every person has his/her own conceptions of truth and lies. Thus, the definition of truth would vary greatly if put in discrete terms. To find the origin or even the definition of truth, Nietzsche proposes that we try to see the world from a bird’s, insect’s, or plant’s point of view. Unfortunately for us, we struggle to do

For this pride contains within itself the 23 most flattering estimation of the value of knowing” (Nietzsche, 1). According to his words, people`s intelligence and senses are not purposed to lead to truth: they rather try to deceive human`s mind. Nietzsche compares the process of generating illusions with dreams, which are permitted to deceive people every night. Each person wants to differ from the monotonous community, and with the aim to become individual he tries to deny truth by easily exchanging it for illusions. Factually, such illusions which later become the basis for new concepts are a method for creating new visions for typical

Truth has always been a very vague and grey area for many people, it’s something that cannot be agreed on by every single person. Each person has their own set of past experiences that have built upon their morals, values and ethics. This ties in with their overall idea of why they view truth and lies in the way that do. Professor Hedrick is interesting in the way that she teaches literature through the historical point of view, proving background information that enables students to build upon this background knowledge and find the interpretation for that piece of literature. Much like our differing viewpoints on the concepts behind truth and lies can be connected to differing interpretations over a certain work of literature. But when truth

Unfortunately, Graff can be recognized as a liar because of his major lie at the end of the the novel; In the final test at command school, Ender realizes something; he realizes that Graff lied to him. The final test was actually him killing all of the bugger population. Graff says to Ender, “It had to be a trick or you couldn't have done it” (Card, 392). The lyrics that most remind me of this situation are “just gonna stand there and hear me cry but that's alright, because I love the way you lie, I love the way you lie”. This makes sense because Graff knows he hurt Ender by lying to him but he knew it was the right thing to do. Thankfully, Ender goes on the prove Graff wrong; it really was not the correct thing to do.

Exaggeration is like the truth, but with a hint of spice. The end product of combining deception and integrity. The ultimate relationship killer. The Bible says the truth will set you free, but what if you don’t know what the truth is. Sam and Dean struggle with uncovering the truth behind both of their perceptions of each other. In addition, express different views of each other that show the extremes of their personality through their/bystanders actions and verbal insults towards one another. This can be shown in 4 scenes in the episode “tall tales”.

Many people disagree with lying and believe that telling a lie is never right. Those that disagree often worry about the consequences of what would happen if the person you were lying to found out. These people would criticize those that tell lies and view them as untrustworthy and fake. One criticism of those that lie is that when you tell one lie you may have to tell another, and another, and so on just to cover up the first lie which leads to one big messy web of lies. Another criticism is that the overall purpose of telling a lie is not just. Usually when someone tells a lie it's to protect themselves. Many would argue against lying by saying the best option is to admit to what was done wrong, accept the consequences of that action, and

Many people believe the idea that truth is subjective, especially when it comes to the Bible. Some think that whatever they believe to be true, is true, while another person believes what they know is true for them. With these basic facts it is clear that most people has their own truth, even if it flatly contradicts other people's truths. In effect, this means that people cannot understand the Bible alike; causing their interpretations to be misinterpreted for their own viewpoints.

Friedrich Nietzsche and William James were philosophers who examined the search for truth and its application in modern society. While both scholars were contemporaries and concentrated on the function of truth, Nietzsche’s philosophy advocated a scientific approach which renounced all religious frameworks, while James’ theory enabled one to find the truth even in the metaphysical.

Oscar Wilde once said, “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to exist” in his “The Decay of Lying”. This quote foreshadows the death of artist Basil Hallward in his The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde is known for being a participant in the aesthetic movement. This movement emphasizes that the role of art is to provide beauty to the observer.

We all lie, and from my perspective of lying, it’s not always a wrong idea. Parents lie to children to keep their innocence intact, at the same time, a good parent’s lying shouldn’t make his or her child an ignorant adult (Santa Claus vs where babies come from). Lying, with the concept of keeping someone out of physical harm isn’t wrong either. For example, a friend says he or she can’t go out, because he or she was preoccupied, but instead he or she really was headed out to be a vigilante, and he or she didn’t want anyone to get physically hurt. However, I believe lying shouldn’t be the only escape from hurting someone, like it shouldn’t be a scapegoat when telling a person an actual opinion of something. If a friend asks “Do you like my sweater?” whether or not one actually like/ prefer it, instead of blatantly hating on it, a better form of saying this, one could end up saying something similar to “it looks cool” or “it’s a unique one”.

Although Nietzsche and Firestein approach truth in dissimilar dialects, they find common ground in what humans can undoubtedly acknowledge- the unknown. It may seem drastic to associate Firestein, who questions ‘facts’ and the scientific method, and suggests that such concepts are falsely projected as the basis of knowledge because they are seemingly exalted of “debt to authority, opinion, bias, or perspective”, with Nietzsche who simply and truly contests truth (Firestein 33). Yet, they both agree that humans need to “question what we know” and the limits of knowing- “we really can't know everything” (Firestein 34). From Firestein, the justification is that society can only have access to firm knowledge about the world if they are constantly