A white lie is generally regarded as a good and moral practice. However, it is at odds with Immanuel Kant's moral theory. For Kant, a misleading truth is consistent with the moral law.
A white lie is generally regarded as a good and moral practice. However, it is at odds with Immanuel Kant's moral theory. For Kant, a misleading truth is consistent with the moral law.
A white lie is generally regarded as a good and moral practice. However, it is at odds with Immanuel Kant's moral theory. For Kant, a misleading truth is consistent with the moral law.
A white lie is generally regarded as a good and moral practice. However, it is at odds with Immanuel Kant's moral theory. For Kant, a misleading truth is consistent with the moral law.
A white lie can be characterized simply as a well-intentioned
untruth. It is generally regarded as a good and moral
practice that people use to get out of compromising and awkward situations, to avoid hurting the feelings of other people, or for some other valiant purpose. However, such notion of the white lie is at odds with Immanuel Kants moral theory. In Professor Sandels video lecture on Lesson in Lying, he assailed the general notion that a white lie comes within what is good and moral. Under Kants theory, a white lie is impermissible. Although it tends to effectuate good ends, it is still ultimately a lie, and for Kant, lies are violations of the moral law and are therefore impermissible regardless of their ends. Sandel defended Kants standpoint in the issue through the Murderer at the Door. In this story, a man was confronted by a murdered asking the location of his friend who was in fact hiding in his house. It was in that moment that the man was confronted with a moral dilemma: whether lying could be justified if it was told so as to save his friend from a serious threat or would it still be against the moral law? While many people would generally answer such question by justifying a white lie to save his friend, Kant would rule that such was against the moral law since it was still a lie, regardless if it was well-intentioned. Instead, Kant would endorse an alternative that was consistent with the moral law - a misleading truth. For Immanuel Kant, there is a significant moral difference between white lies and misleading truths. While tend to effectuate the same purpose or end, the latter would be within Kants categorical imperative since misleading truths are not strictly lies, but merely clever evasions that still speak of truth. This is because Kant based morality on formal adherence to the moral law and not consequences. He argued that once a person takes into account the consequences, then that person gives up the whole moral framework and becomes a consequentialist. Unlike a white lie, a misleading truth pays homage to duty which justifies the evasion as there is still some element of respect for the dignity of the moral law. Such element is not present in a white lie. For this reason, Kant would endorse a misleading truth but never a white lie. Number of words: 400