Joshua WarnerCharles OliverPH 105:01 Introduction to Ethics4/14/14Second Writing Assignment

No Reason to Lie

Under no circumstance can or will lying ever be the cure to anyone's problems if

their end goal is to, inevitably, be a morally just person. You should always tell the truth

for your own righteousness and for the righteousness of all of your peers. Having an

open conscience as well as being able to collectively communicate your thoughts will

help to suppress the idea that lying can solve a bigger problem at hand because lying

is, essentially, not facing the problem. Lying is merely just creating another problem to

avoid the last. And then the question becomes, if you create another problem to hide

the first problem, are you solving any of the problems? No! The fact is, lying will never

do you good. These scenarios begin to get complicated when it comes to the life or

death of a hopeless human being but, I firmly believe, two wrongs will never make any

party right. So, just because there are people doing the wrong thing does not mean that

you should ever do another wrong thing in order to pretend the first wrong thing never

happened. No matter the situation, lying just creates more issues when the bigger

problem at hand should be tackled.

Let's take this rationalization and apply it to the television production of

Decalogue VIII. Though I believe that this piece faces much larger issues such as

breaking promises and making promises that you may not be able to keep, it effectively

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puts forth a scenario in which lying may seem to be seen as justified. Essentially, Zofia

and her Christian husband deny a young Jewish Elzbieta into their home during the

Holocaust. This is with the knowledge that they have already assured her family they

will take care of her and that if she does not go in, she will probably stay out to die.

Although I see this has an issue dealing with promises and why you shouldn't make

them, I see that this is an example of why you should never lie. We're lucky to see that

all are still living when this memoir occurs but let's look at it as if the Christian family lets

Elzbieta in. From Zofia's side, the repercussions will be much worse- what if Elzbieta is

a spy and then Zofia and her husband's lives are on the line? In addition, Zofia would

have to live with the knowledge that she has lied to the patrolling officers. Having these

problems lurk through Zofia and all the people she interacts with all her life are much

more demonizing than if she just does the truthful thing and does not lie about anyone's

religion. But here's where the problem of promises and trust lay- you must never make

a promise that you can't keep; especially when it's a promise to lie. Promises assure

both parties that one will do whatever is needed in order to make the outcome happen.

This is why we shouldn't promise if we can't keep it but if we do, I think you need to

accept the agreement and do what is needed to be done, even if that means lying. But

again, this is why you don't make promises that you can't keep.

I know what you're thinking- what if you cannot tackle the larger issue head on

and you feel the only way to make anything better is to lie your way through life? If the

larger issue at hand, like in our instance being the Holocaust, I feel you must do what is

right for yourself. This is not being selfish but being sensitive that the power is now out

of your hands. In smaller issues, tackling them head on is always the best option to

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ease the problem as well as keep yourself healthy. In the end, lying creates more

problems for yourself. More problems for yourself equal more problems for everyone

around you. In order to live an ethically, morally just life, you need yourself to be happy

as well as you want the people around you to be happy.

Kant would believe with my theory saying that adding unnatural gestures to your

life is a downfall. He believes we should do everything for how we feel we should do

them and lying is not a natural or a 'feel good duty'. For a person who lies a lot, they

keep a lot on their mind. They obviously know that lying is bad and 'causes more

problems, so all of these problems and poor judgements will linger on their mind. Not

having a clear conscience is dangerous to yourself and your peers. Because of all of

these reasons and more, lying just makes many more issues to your problem than you

need.

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