Lying and Deception: Theory and Practice

✍ Scribed by Thomas L. Carson

• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 301
• Edition: 1St Edition
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Thomas Carson offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date investigation of moral and conceptual questions about lying and deception. Part I addresses conceptual questions and offers definitions of lying, deception, and related concepts such as withholding information, "keeping someone in the dark," and "half truths." Part II deals with questions in ethical theory. Carson argues that standard debates about lying and deception between act-utilitarians and their critics are inconclusive because they rest on appeals to disputed moral intuitions. He defends a version of the golden rule and a theory of moral reasoning. His theory implies that there is a moral presumption against lying and deception that causes harm -- a presumption at least as strong as that endorsed by act-utilitarianism. He uses this theory to justify his claims about the issues he addresses in Part III: deception and withholding information in sales, deception in advertising, bluffing in negotiations, the duties of professionals to inform clients, lying and deception by leaders as a pretext for fighting wars (with special attention to the case of Bush and Cheney), and lying and deception about history (with special attention to the Holocaust), and cases of distorting the historical record by telling half-truths. The book concludes with a qualified defence of the view that honesty is a virtue.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 18
Introduction and Précis......Page 22
PART I: CONCEPTS......Page 34
1.I: My Definition of Lying......Page 36
1.II: Replies to Criticisms of My Definition......Page 55
Conclusions......Page 60
Endnotes......Page 61
Introduction......Page 67
2.I: Deception......Page 68
2.II: Keeping Someone in the Dark......Page 74
2.III: The Relationship between Lying, Deception, Keeping Someone in the Dark, Concealing Information, and Withholding Information......Page 76
2.IV: Two Related Notions: ''Spin'' and ''Half-Truths''......Page 78
2.V: Bullshit......Page 79
Endnotes......Page 84
IIA: NORMATIVE ETHICAL THEORY......Page 86
3. Kant and the Absolute Prohibition against Lying......Page 88
4. Act-Utilitarianism......Page 110
5. Ross and Rule-Consequentialism......Page 122
IIB: MORAL REASONING......Page 148
6. The Golden Rule and a Theory of Moral Reasoning......Page 150
IIC: THE IMPLICATIONS OF IIA AND IIB FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT LYING AND DECEPTION......Page 178
7. The Partial Overlap/Convergence of Reasonable Views......Page 180
PART III: APPLICATIONS......Page 188
Introduction......Page 190
8.I: The Obligations of Salespeople......Page 191
8.II: Case Studies......Page 196
Endnotes......Page 202
9.I: Deceptive Advertising......Page 203
9.II: Why Following the Law is not Enough......Page 207
9.III: Two Objections......Page 209
Endnotes......Page 211
10.I: Is Bluffing Lying?......Page 212
10.II: The Economics of Bluffing......Page 213
10.III: Is it Morally Permissible to Misstate One's Negotiating Position?......Page 214
10.IV: Applying the Principle of Self-Defense......Page 216
Endnotes......Page 218
Introduction......Page 219
11.I: The Frequent Incentive/Temptation to Deceive Clients......Page 220
11.II: Information Disclosure and Professional Obligations......Page 223
11.III: Informed Consent......Page 225
Endnotes......Page 227
Introduction......Page 229
12.I: Lying and Deception in Order to Create a Justification or Pretext for War......Page 230
12.II: Another case: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Iraq War of 2003......Page 233
12.III: A Case of Lying/Deception to Avoid War?......Page 243
12.IV: A Moral Assessment of (Some of) the Cases......Page 244
Endnotes......Page 250
13.I: Germany, World War I, and the Myth of the ''Stab in the Back''......Page 253
13.II: Rewriting History......Page 264
13.III: Half-Truths and Group Conflict......Page 269
13.IV: Intellectual Honesty......Page 273
Endnotes......Page 276
Introduction......Page 278
14.I: Dissenters from Conventional Wisdom......Page 279
14.II: In What Sense Honesty is and is not a Virtue......Page 284
Endnotes......Page 286
Bibliography......Page 288
C......Page 298
H......Page 299
O......Page 300
Z......Page 301