Weathers 1 Taylor Weathers Professor Akl Eng 152-53/E1 Final 2/29/12 The Truth About Lying, by Judith Viorst

In her essay, The Truth About Lying, published in Buscemi and Smith's 75 Readings: An Anthology, Judith Viorst examines the subject of lying. She freely acknowledges that she cannot decide outright whether lying is wrong, so she presented a string of ethical dilemmas, and gave her opinion on each. The first type of lie discussed was the social lie. These are described as lies told in order to avoid causing unintentional harm to another person, such as pretending to enjoy a hideous painting or distasteful bowl of soup, as the author put it. Viorst does not consider social lies to be reprehensible, taking instead the view that a social lie causes no harm; In fact, she gives the opinion the to not tell social lies is arrogant. She does, however, refer to a man who is unable to tell even the smallest of lies because even social lies can make a person seem untrustworthy if they are discovered, in addition to his belief that lying is simply immoral. Peace keeping lies are told in order to keep harm or inconvenience away from the liar, rationalized by the fact that they are victimless lies. While Viorst admits to occasionally telling this kind of lie, she asserts that she feels remorse for each of these lies that she tells because telling them makes her feel as though she has no courage. She illustrates this point through an example of a married couple in which the woman, wishing to visit New York without seeing her mother, who is a resident, feels that lying about her trip avoids unnecessary conflict. Her husband, on the other hand, feels that such behavior is cowardly. Lies that are told in order to defend the interests of the person being lied to are called protective

Weathers 2 lies. They are usually relatively big ones; Viorst gives the example of telling a lie to someone who is terminally ill in order to avoid causing undue anguish, or lying to a partner about adultery. She is reluctant to consider protective lies permissible because it is difficult to say whether or not the falsehood would most benefit the person being lied to, a person must often tell lies to cover up the original lie, and the person certainly doesn't want to be lied to. Another type of protective lie is one told in order to protect someone's ego. She uses lies about satisfaction during lovemaking as an example here, saying that she had no problem telling a small lie about her husband's performance, as long as there was not usually a reason for complaint, and, by extension, a lie. The final type of lie that Viorst discusses is a trust-keeping lie. This is described as being a lie told not for the sake of the liar, but for the sake of a third party in order to avoid betraying his or her confidence. The author believes that telling this kind of lie is necessary when the teller has agreed to keep certain information confidential. Paradoxically, she considers these lies to be immoral when they are used to cover up a friends illicit actions, giving the Watergate scandal as an example of such a situation. She gives lying in order to keep a friend's infidelity a secret as another example, describing a woman who would rather be ignorant of an extra-marital affair than lie about it. Viorst's final opinion on the subject on lying is that it is necessary under certain circumstances, but she would always rather tell the truth. Her opinion, and that of most of the people whom she consulted, was that the negative effects of telling a lie outweighed the positive. However, she refused to give a conclusive decision on the subject.

Weathers 3 Works Cited Viorst, Judith. The Truth About Lying. 75 Readings: An Anthology. New York: McGraw Hill. 2010. Print.