Wednesday 19 May 2010

What makes a lie

Is it a lie if you did not intend to deceive anyone? If you said something you believed to be true, but was not, then your intent was not to deceive, and I would not call you a liar, merely ignorant. If, however, you start from the definition of absolute truth, then saying something that is not true is a lie, whether you knew it or not. The trouble with that second definition, though it is more useful in picking truth from untruth, is that it muddies the definition between who intends to deceive you (and cannot, therefore, be trusted) and who is merely ignorant (who may be trusted to be honest, but may need some fact-checking).

Mokalus of Borg

PS - A polygraph only aims to detect the intent to deceive.
PPS - If it could do more, it would be a very strange device.

4 comments:

Charles said...

Intent to deceive is unmeasurable. Show me a polygraph machine, and I'll show you a pulse/breath-rate/blood-pressure/perspiration monitor with a fancy name.

John said...

Exactly my point, or part of it anyway. You'd need a genuine mind-reader to detect the intent to deceive, and then you wouldn't need to ask questions anyway.

Charles said...

I saw a mind reader on the discovery channel once...

I doubt the credibility of everything I see on that channel.

John said...

Seems like a sound policy.