Determining whether an action is right or wrong is one of the more, if not the most, difficult decisions many humans will ever have to decide. Whether this decision is rationally thought through, or just the way someone feels because one way may be easier than the other, when a moral theory is applied to an action, sometimes feelings don’t always matter. Sometimes the easy things aren’t always the right things.
I want to take a look at right vs. wrong actions, specifically in lying and the truth. Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century German philosopher who is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern
Kant has 3 arguments to deduce how to do the right thing. His reasons and principles emphasizes on the intentions of these actions. Kant states that people cannot always control the consequences to actions, but people can control their intentions. It is our obligation to have the intention to do the right thing. I will briefly explain his theory and the 3 arguments, but for a more detailed explanation I suggest you go to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The first of Kant’s three formulas states that if you cannot make something a universal law, it is not the right thing to do. For example, a man cheating on his wife, according to Kant, it would never be possible to make adultery acceptable for everyone to do so it should never be done. A person would not say, I hope, that “you can cheat on me because I did it to you.” If something cannot be made a universal law, it is wrong.
Kant’s second formula says that you are to not use a person as a mere means to an end. This is because every human is a rational being who has dreams and goals just like any other person; henceforth, it would not be acceptable for another human to take that away from another.
His third formula is called The Kingdom of Ends. This means that your actions and intentions are a role model for all of humanity.
Using this theory, lets take a look at truth vs. lies.
When a person decides to create a lie rather then tell the truth they are then deciding what is their form of the truth. What we have come to understand, through the use of reason and general revelation, is that there can only be one truth. Why should this person who tells the lie be able to manipulate and deceive to other so they can better themselves? Because when we do tell a lie, what is the reason behind it? More often than not, it is because we have done something wrong and do not want to get caught for it. Are the consequences of telling the truth worse than morphing the truth? Where is it that we develop the right truth? For many people, as it should be, this is found from the teachings in the Bible. But if someone is a skeptic and chooses to not understand the Bible, where are they to find their parameters? There are many philosophical theories out there to help people figure out what is right and what is wrong. Kant’s, I believe, is one of the most difficult, and one of the strongest.
Say for example, someone is involved in car accident. The person, who was in the wrong, chooses that it is better for him or herself to drive off. What was, at the moment, thought to be their only option then turns into a dense web of lies. This person has now created their own form of the truth. What these people who lie don’t initially realize, is that one lie, no matter how minute, spirals into a negative change of life. The liars become the lie. Things become so complex that they must live the lie. Eventually resulting in a loss of what is rightfully true.
Kant would say, that hit and runs can never be made a universal law, and that this action is a mere means to an end, the liars end, and the liar could never be a good role model. Therefore, we shall never leave the scene of an accident.
Some say that when a lie is created to protect another person this is acceptable. However, let’s look at an argument of someone who has been kidnapped. Say the kidnapped person escapes and they are hiding in your home. Eventually, the kidnapper comes to your house asking if you’re hiding anyone; is it acceptable to lie and say you are not hiding anyone? If you think all forms of lying are wrong you would not lie to the kidnapper. However, does this mean you should say “yes, I’ve got your person right here in my closet!” There are ways to get around the question where you would still not be lying. Because consider that you told the kidnapper, “No, I’m not hiding anyone. There is no one in this house”, then the kidnapper would move along and continue to look for that person. But what if the person that was hiding left your house and was running down the street and the kidnapper found him after he left your home. Lying to the kidnapper still did not accomplish anything. Therefore, we can say that lying is never acceptable, even if you think it’s to protect someone.
Many people think Kant’s philosophies are too strict or too hard to follow, but in many cases, the easy things are usually the wrong things. Life wasn’t meant to be easy, people are meant to question, to ponder, to make mistakes; but in the end, learning and growing are the greatest things life offers. Through learning and growing, discovery takes place, discovering our inner selves, our true beliefs. Some things in life may be hard, but if people can get through those things by making the right decisions, what a great accomplishment to have gotten through something so difficult.
So whether someone believes in the teachings of the Bible or not, we should all be able to agree that lying, in the case of protecting yourself, and even others, is not the right choice. Lying creates false truths. Lying creates people who can no longer see right from wrong. They only see what is right for themselves. In the end, lying doesn’t result in helping anyone, even the liar.
No comments:
Post a Comment