It's a question people have wrestled over for millenia, and now we, Ms. Froehlich's Enriched English class, will settle it: Is lying ever ethically or morally justified?
As a general rule, I believe not. People sometimes say lying is moral if it prevents a greater harm, but I don't think this is a valid justification; it is usually hard to know what the consequences of one's actions will be. In Much Ado About Nothing, Don Pedro, Leonato, and Claudio lie to trick Benedick into falling in love with Beatrice. So far, their scheme seems to be working, but it could easily have gone the other way; Benedick could have chosen to mock Beatrice for her supposed infatuation with him, or even simply have confronted her about it. Shakespeare seems to consider lying okay when done in the service of love, but if this were real life, Benedick probably would not have fallen in love, and the whole plan would have gone awry. Because we do not fully control the consequences of our actions, lying to prevent harm to others may as easily backfire as succeed.
The results of not lying may be as unknowable as those of lying, but honesty is preferable because it allows people to deal with circumstances more directly. If a person does not know the full truth about their situation, they cannot respond to it in the manner they would deem best for that situation. Because Benedick now thinks that Beatrice loves him so much as to die, he decides that he must love her in return. This love is not based on any of his own true feelings, merely the duty he feels as a result of Leonato, Don Pedro, and Claudio's lies. Shakespeare would probably say that it is good that Benedick is starting to love, no matter what the cause. But I think that true love cannot result simply because Benedick thinks it is his duty– if true love does eventually form, then it probably would have done so without any deception, just a bit later in time.
I will admit that lying may sometimes have a seemingly better result, but I don't think this is a reason to make lying in itself ethical. I'm sure people will continue to lie and try to justify it, however.
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8 comments:
I agree! Lying is traditionally wrong, but I do believe that there are many situations in which lying can be justified. For instance; surprise parties, in boosting someone's self-esteem, etc. These are great examples of ethical lying. However, in the end you're right, the majority of lies are wrong.
Jenny, I agree what you said about if MAAN was a real life story than most of the lies and tricks would not play out like they are right now in this play. I like how you said about that honesty solves problem directly, I think that society will fall apart if too many people lie (continuously). I think that even before this Benedick had something in his eyes that said he was fond of Beatrice so this lie didn't create the love, it only furthered it. All in all, I agree with what you said about lying being unethical.
Good post Jenny. I particularly agree with this statement:
"If a person does not know the full truth about their situation, they cannot respond to it in the manner they would deem best for that situation."
Now Trevor will bash me for this, but isn't this the reason that we got stuck in Iraq?
And I definitely think that lying is justified is some circumstances, such as to save another person's life.
But too many lies just causes trouble.
Very good points, except for the sake of discussion I'll counter one of your arguements. You say that Benedick falls in love through this lie, saying that he does so because only because he heard that Beatrice might kill herself over him. However, isn't it possible that he always kinda had feelings for her, and this lie was a gateway/excuse to his true feelings? Just a thought. I do support honesty and find it to be a more valuable thing to our society than lies. Superb post!
I see what you're saying here and I mostly agree. I think that maybe the reason people don't like the idea of lying like you don't is because the word lying has a negative connotation. In haley's comment she said lying is ok as long as its for something good like surprise parties. I found myself thinking "well that's not really lying..." but in fact it is. Maybe we should think of a new word besides "white lies" for harmless lies because that too can have a negative connotation. But anyway nice job!
I really agree with your ideas on lying. I dont think lying can ever be justified because lying is lying, and like you said although one may have good intentions things may not always turn out well. And you were right in saying that not lying does have same unknown factor, but it is different because one is being honest. i really enjoyed your post!
Hmmm interesting post. I hadn't thought about it the same way as you did, but you're very correct in saying that even lying for good intentions may backfire and yield negative results. Honesty truly is the best policy in many cases, although I think there are some exceptions here and there. For example, in someone else's post, they mentioned that their friends lied to her about her surprise birthday party so she would be surprised. There, lying is a perfectly good thing because it was just part of a plan. Maybe lying is somewhat better when you truly know the person and know how they will react. But then again, there is a risk. Nice post, it's really deeep.
Jenny! I would have to agree with you that lying is ethically unacceptable! But I also think that small lies to better someone else can be acceptable, but even that needs to be used with caution. Lies are a trap that one puts upon themselves and should be avoided at all costs. Very strong examples and back up evidence! Nice job Jenny!
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