Is Deception Justifiable?
A deception is a concealment or misrepresentation of the truth; of making someone believe something that is not true, i.e. to propagate a falsity as truth. The opposite of deceit is honesty. That is to say, that when you don't provide the truth but you can, it's dishonest, it's a lie. A deception is a lie, plain and simple.
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It's odd to think that deception gets justified in many ways in our society. We like magic tricks and illusions to amaze and entertain us, but we know at the same time what they do isn't real, it's an unreality that is made to look real. It's a trick where we allow ourselves to be fooled.
Many people seem to accept deceptions like white lies on the grounds that they "don't really hurt" anyone. There are other deception many people engage in that are justified. Some people think white lies are protecting others: don't tell someone the truth because they think it will hurt them. But that's robbing someone of the capacity to know reality, letting them believe an unreality. It's more like white lies are protecting the person giving them from being the bearer of unwanted or bad news. When the person being lied to find out they were lied to, they view it as a betrayal, which it is, and instead of not getting hurt they are hurt by someone they thought they could trust.
There are also less innocuous deceptions.
A surprise birthday party can be planned, and those involved in the surprise will intentionally mislead the birthday person with deceptions or outright lies in order to prevent them from knowing the truth about the birthday party.
A new romance might prompt someone to try to impress another with fancy food, but they can't cook. So they instead order out and pretend that they cooked the meal. They pass off the cooking as their own, deceiving someone into thinking they are a good cook. But this deception can only go on for so long and may eventually harm the attempt to form a relationship because people don't like being deceived, being lied to. You can't trust someone who lies to you.
When people are lied to, they are deceived, and they feel like they are being played like a puppet. Few people like being manipulated.
Does a good intention justify a deception?
I'm not saying deception is never justifiable. Sometimes you need to deceive a person who can and is willing to harm you for going against a "rule" that is unjust or immoral. You need to be able to deceive a deceiver sometimes, to lie to the liar, the hide from the immorality around you that could hurt you for trying to be just and righteous.
In the world of politics, deception against the populace is "justified" by politicians and rulers in history. They lie to us, deceive us, and keep manipulating us. They play us like puppets on a string. In order to combat their deception, manipulation, control and domination over our lives, many people have used deception to beat them. We have more rights recognized now than in other times int he past, but we may still need to be covert in the information war.
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Deception, lying, in a malicious or selfish way is just bad. As a child it’s different as they are learning, but compulsive liars as adults are very common. Some try to big themselves up through lying, to boost their self esteem maybe, which I guess is a burden on the individual. But others try to lie to others, to cover themselves. Many people cheat, and lie to their partners. Maybe people do things behind their friends backs, and lie to them. What I can’t understand is how a person can continually lie and not feel bad, some people feel relieved if they know they have gotten away with something, rather than feel bad that they have done someone wrong. For me, a deep lie is one of the worst things, and I know some people who do it often and don’t feel a thing. For me, I can’t lie as I feel awful inside
That's a very good point. It's odd isn't it? Feel bad for doing something wrong, but then feel better by getting away with it... lol.
Is so odd. One of my good friends is like that and I’ve never been able to understand it. It’s crazy how much humans can vary isn’t it.
This is a reality, and the policy being synonymous with deception is justified by a large number of people, for my part I do not approve of deception in any area, even if for my own good, who lives on lies, can not lead a quiet life, You will always be willing to be discovered and that is where you can lose a lot of things, lies break trust and confidence in turn helps to improve people feel comfortable and at ease, the truth never falls this is a value that we must learn since childhood, although I would accept lies, only for surprise birthdays!
There are truths that can be hard, but before you lie, I think it's best to look for the best situation to give the great gift of being honest, happy day.
Excuse my English, I only speak Spanish
Justifiable is an interesting word.
Would you justify cutting yourself to avoid a deadly wound?
It is what we do when we lie.
Cutting our soul. Little by little.
But currently we are in a war for our very speech.
People are already being sent to the gulags.
Yup, we must tread carefully in some circles...
I was going to say in the case of saving truth, however real truth has no need for deception. They are like night and day. you cannot serve both deception and truth. One must decide on which side they will live. Thanks @krnel
Indeed, be right or go wrong, truth or consequence...
They're the bad guys so we're exonerated from being dishonest towards them. So ends justify the means?
I for one consider that to be only true when the means also justify the ends.
So my answer would be, Yes deception is justifiable. It depends on the nature of deception in question. For honesty accords to a higher truth which not infrequently is at variance with factual truth-telling.
Wow- you put that into words- PERFECTLY!
The truth is always hidden in lies, @krnel the last paragraph really cut my fancy, Great post boss
Hehe, often times yes in our world ;)
Simply put, NO... BY the way, do these pants make my ass look fat???
Yes if they do, no if they don't. If you want an answer, ask it, and you will get an honest answer form me ;)
My point exactly... there is no lie that's acceptable!
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Relevance: Deception
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I do not agree there, please prove me wrong
Not everyone deserves your honesty, people are liars they don't appreciate the honesty and they take advantage, well ok I'm wrong, it causes miscommunication if you leave out pieces of the information, I still do it to get people to think and pay attention, usually it's nothing major
I should have read up till the end :P but yeah precisely, not everyone is your friend, even some friends are enemies if you count the fact they are playing against themselves ...
justifying the means by the ends is the first step to abandon all morality. Knowledge is power and no matter what we are always better of it we know the full truth.