Lie and Deception

Introduction

What is a lie? What is a deception? These questions are central to philosophical discussion.
So, If you have nothing to hide, why not tell the complete truth? Let’s read the following
text and see if there are any answers to some of these questions.

It was my 23rd birthday. Like every other year, my aunt prepared a present for me. It was
something hand-made, just like always. And then I saw a sweater that she had knitted for
me. My first thought was: "Oh, no, not another ghastly sweater!" but, of course, instead of
that I said: "Oh, thank you. It's lovely, just what I wanted".

So I lied. What would have happened if I hadn't lied? Nothing well, that's for sure. But there
is also the possibility that I would have made everything simpler if I had just told the truth.
She would have finally realised that I didn't like her gifts and maybe she would have
changed the presents she had been preparing for me.

Nevertheless, lying or the pure ability to deceive other people is an essential part of life.
Lying means we want to deceive someone. If we weren't trying to make someone think or
feel something that they wouldn't otherwise think or feel, manipulation would have never
become such a cunning craft. In other words, if you influence someone's opinions or
thoughts you are manipulating them. But many parts of life have manipulation as their
basis. If we couldn't influence other people's thoughts and feelings, life as we know it would
be impossible.

Most sport, for example, is based on deception. If the footballer at the yesterday's game
hadn't made the goalkeeper think that he was going to shoot in the opposite side of the net,
he probably wouldn't have scored the goal. Entertainment too, depends on deception. We
are certain that the people on the stage are not really Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. In many
cases we enjoy being deceived. If the film-makers hadn't designed special effects, we would
have been greatly disappointed while watching some of today's contemporary films.

Think about everyday life. What would it really be like if, during history, people had had to
tell only absolute truth every time? What would have happened to courtship, family life,
advertising? If we had been totally realistic, our children would have never heard about
Santa Claus. You have to admit, that would be a real pity. Deception seems to be a natural
part of life. We need to get people to do certain things all the time and we deliberately don't
tell the truth, or we tell only part of the truth. The question is, when does not telling the
whole truth becomes a lie?

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Synonyms

Nouns (imenice): Verbs (glagoli):

sweater – jumper, cardigan knit – weave
influence – effect, impact, impression
deception – trickery, fraud, deceit
goalkeeper – goalie, goaltender, net-keeper
craft - skill, art, ability, technique
courtship – wooing, courting
advertising – promotion, marketing
Santa Clause – Father Christmas, Kriss
Kringle, Saint Nick, Santa, St. Nick, Saint
Nicholas
pity – shame

Adjectives and adverbs Prepositions and conjunctions

(pridevi i prilozi): (predlozi i veznici):
hand-made – hand-crafted -
ghastly – horrible, shocking, terrible, awful
cunning – skillful, clever
contemporary – modern, latest, recent
deliberately – intentionally, on purpose
otherwise – differently, any other way, in
another way, contrarily

Tabela 45.2.

Conclusion

• After reading the text we can see how positive lying can be. The so-called ‘white lies’
became a natural part of our life. The important thing is to detect when not telling
the whole truth becomes a lie.

Napomena za testove napredovanja

Kako biste što bolje usvojili gradivo, uz ovu lekciju dostupni su testovi za vežbu, koji se
odnose na razumevanje teksta i vokabulara iz ove nastavne jedinice.

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