Lying with Integrity

Although we inherently perceive lying as bad this is surely not always the case. We seem to subdivide lying into categories of acceptability; white lies, which we would say are small and more for someone’s benefit than harm and then there are lies that we class as unacceptable and that are more likely to cause hurt and upset.

There are some lies that we get told when we are children such as Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. Now some would argue that these are lies at all but rather stories. Without quibbling over the details this is still something we are told that is not the truth. But does it actually cause any harm? No. When you are young it makes Christmas more magical and
special and from personal experience I enjoyed Christmas more as a child when I believed in Santa. The same can be said for the tooth fairy. It’s much better for the pain of pulling a tooth out thinking that a fairy will replace it with money. Though that being said the money is good on its own regardless of the fairy!

On the other side of the spectrum there are lies that are not as innocent. For example before the enlightenment when only those within the church could read the Bible as they were only written in Latin. This made them powerful as no one could dispute their teachings because they couldn’t read them! It was actually common for some clergy to sell pieces of paper and claim that they were tickets to heaven to make their churches richer. This clearly is a lie that does harm to others rather than help them as they are not having the choice to think for themselves and are being controlled.

This is an interesting site looking at lies from a philosophical point of view; http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lying-definition/