Friday, February 13, 2015

Kant's Supposed Right to Lie

I have to agree with Immanuel Kant in his rational mind of saying that there cannot be a good reason to lie. While I want there to be a good reason to lie and I want to make a good excuse for lying the argument that we cannot know the outcome of lying for a good reason makes more sense to me. If I was able to know that the outcome of my lie was going to result in good then I could say that  there is a good reason to lie but since I cannot know if the result of my lie is going to come out well, I have to agree that it is best in all circumstances to tell the truth. I don't like this. But I do see his point. Add this to the fact that if we say that you can lie in these circumstances then telling the truth loses all value and holds no weight. Of course, this is how it will be in a world of perfectly moral agents and that is not how humanity is. Because we are human and are all fallible, we will all lie and be immoral at times, no matter how hard we try not to lie or try to be perfectly moral.

1 comment:

  1. Of course Kant's logic makes sense, but In my opinion, it doesn't seem like he takes real-life examples into account. He reminds me of Plato in the sense that he has an ideological way of looking at matters, but fails to give us intricate examples. I don't know anyone who would think it immoral to save you're friend from an ax-murderer. In a situation like that, I would have to tell a lie.

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