Friday, February 20, 2015
Kant and Lying
Last Friday we concluded our discussion of Immanuel Kant. The last day of discussion revolved mostly around the idea of lying. We discussed how Immanuel Kant believes that an individual should avoid telling a lie in order to be what they think to be moral. He believes that the morally right thing to do is to tell the truth no matter the situation. He then provided us with a situation in which your friend is being chased by an ax murder coming to you for help. So you help them by hiding them. Then the ax murder comes to your door and asks if you have seen your friend. Do you lie? Kant says that even in this situation one should tell the truth because you, as an individual, do not know what the future holds. There is a chance that you lie to the ax murder and tell him your friend went in a different direction. While you are telling the ax murder this lie and believe it to be a lie, your friend in the mean time could have gone in that direction and now you have just told the ax murder where your friend is without intending to. Kant has a compelling argument, however I would disagree with Kant. I feel that if your lying to protect someone who is in grave danger than in that instance a lie, in my opinion, is right. I have acted in a manner in which my intention to save my friend, which makes the lie morally right. So, I would say that if an individual were to lie to protect someone, then I would say the lie was not wrong but right despite any outcome that may occur.
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I would also have to disagree with Kant's point of view. If you are trying to help someone in a dire situation I believe that if lying would help, it would be the morally right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI also disagree with Kant. If someone is chasing me with an ax and I finally make it to safety and he asks if I'm there, you better say no! I think lying is okay in certain circumstances, like when we talked about lying to children about santa. But I do see how lying can be immoral.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Kant has a great point and strong argument, however I would also say that I disagree. Although I do not believe it is necessarily "good" to lie, there are times that is better to lie rather than telling the truth always no matter what, like in a dire situation like you previously mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Nadia when you say that you would disagree with Kant in this particular situation. Lying may be immoral in some circumstances but when it deals with one that is a matter of life or death I would probably lie to protect someone too. I would lie if it protects someone from any sort of harm. Lying isn't always necessarily a bad thing if it benefits a life or death situation as the one you mentioned. Great point!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nadia. While Kant says that you should never lie because it is the right thing to do, it is also the right thing to do to save your friend from being murdered. In this example, you are doing good by helping your friend because that is what you ought to do, you are also still doing wrong by lying to the murderer. You are both doing right and wrong by Kant because it is the act not the consequence that determines if what a person does is morally right. So again, while you are lying, i would believe saving your friends life is a greater act than telling the murderer the truth.
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