Is lying ever right?
Lying is the known concept of distorting someone else's reality to their or your own means.
Why lie?
People might lie to cover something up so they don't get into trouble or to see how you'll respond when you hear them lie, like an experiment of some sort. They might make their story more exciting or make themselves sound better. They could to it to get attention, even when they know you know the truth and sometimes it's to get something they want.
Children can learn to tell lies from an early age, usually by around three years of age. This is when your child starts to realise that you aren't a mind reader, so he can say things that aren't true without you always knowing.
Children lie more at 4-6 years. Your child might get better at telling lies by matching her facial expressions and the tone of her voice to what she's saying. If you ask her to explain what she's saying, she'll usually own up.
When children reach school-age, they might lie more often and can be better at lying. The lies also get more complicated, because your child has more words and is better at understanding how other people think.
By eight years, children can lie successfully without getting caught out.
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was an influential German philosopher. In his doctrine of transcendental idealism, he argued that space, time and causation are mere sensibilities; "things-in-themselves" exist, but their nature is unknowable. He also argued that lying was always wrong.
Some Buddhist Traditions say 'we should NEVER LIE.
However, just say you were alive when Hilter was around. And you had Jewish people hiding in your loft and he knocked on your door asking you 'do you have any jews in your house (knowing very well he was going to kill them) Do you lie and say No or tell the truth and let hitler kill them??
A situation like this was proposed to Immanuel Kant by French philosopher, Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque, or simply Benjamin Constant. He proposed that 'what if a known murderer came to your house and asked where you friend was? Would you tell the truth then?'
Kants responses was 'yes, you shouldn't lie and just keep your hands clean'
The noble lie
In politics , a noble lie is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly propagated by an elite to maintain social harmony or to advance an agenda. The noble lie is a concept originated by Plato as described in the republic.
Plato presented the Noble Lie (gennaion pseudos – literally, "a lie or wrong opinion about origin") in the fictional tale known as the myth or parable of the metals. In it, Socrates provides the origin of the three social classes who compose the republic proposed by Plato; Socrates speaks of a Socially stratified society, wherein the populace are told "a sort of Phoenician tale":
Christianity views on lying
Everyone in the world, from ages 14 up, have lied and gotten away with it. As the Bible says, "There is no one righteous, not even one .... Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit."
This tells us that someone as all loving as god thinks nobody is perfect and that our own throats aren't necessarily pretty or nice. As well as that, our tongues practice to perfect lying.
The Differentiation of lying in old tales and stories
Lying is something we learn not to do as small children. Aesop's fables and many children's stories teach us about lying.
One of the most famous of Aesop's fables is "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." And then, perhaps when we are a little older, we learn about George Washington and the cherry tree he cut down. The words attributed to the boy Washington, "I cannot tell a lie," were strong medicine for those of us who were his age when we first heard the story.
The word fib seems to be used more for the lying we do as children and not for what we do as adults. It actually means a "trivial lie" and comes from the same root as fable. Pinocchio was probably at the fibbing stage, whereas George Washington was clearly conscious of some kind of moral precept.
And then, I bring you back to, Plato's "noble lie" (which was confirmed by Soctrates, Plato's teacher) in his Republic, the lie told to the members of various classes of citizens that being in one class and not another was somehow natural and not conventional, not up to us.
We are actually surrounded by lying. We not only lie personally to each other and to ourselves but we live in a society full of lies. Businesses lie, politicians lie, governments lie, teachers lie, students lie, doctors lie, patients lie. Imagine if we liars all suffered what happened to Pinocchio. The long noses would probably cause pedestrian traffic problems as well as require a redesign of our homes and workspaces.
Now, the most popular lie in history is 'I am alright'. Everyone in this class, students and teacher, has said that lie more than once, when we aren't actually 'alright' but why do we say it?
Do we want to not talk about why we are not ok? "
Do we not want the other person to worry?
Or is it just an instinct?
Or is it a mix of the three? We say it so much. So there is never a secure answer anymore.
In the end, I believe Kant was wrong to be so idealistic with his views and lying is right in some cases but need to only be used lightly.
