Scan barcode
A review by youniseader
Lying by Sam Harris
3.0
This is a sort of an extended essay on the morality of lying written by Sam Harris in 2011.
It's a book about the absolute immorality of lying. Sam Harris is a known absolute moralist. He believes that we can come to universal agreements about moral issues just as we come to agreements about scientific facts.
Sam Harris defines a lie as simply as all would agree, which is , "... believing one thing while intending to communicate another.”
He argues about his points by citing his and others' experiences of conversations that involved lying. Like this one: this is a story of a woman who bought a birthday gift to her friend from the hotel gift shop while she was staying at the hotel and didn't have time to go out and buy her a gift
“Amazing gift! Where did you get it?”
“When did you get them” she said
Surprised by the question, and by a lurching sense of impropriety. Sita sought to regain her footing with a lie. “Oh, we just bought them in the hotel gift shop”
The next words came from her innocent son, “No, Mommy, you got them in the bathroom!”
Imagine the faces of these two women, briefly frozen in embarrassment and then yielding to smiles of apology and forgiveness. This may seem the most trivial of lies- and it was- but it surely is doing nothing to increase the level of trust between these two friends…Sita; she will lie when it suits her needs."
It seems certain that such situations should never involve lying. And I agree!
Two types of immoral acts
"There are two types of moral transgressions we do. the bad things we do (acts of commission) and the good things we fail to do (acts of omission). We tend to judge the former far more harshly." Same goes for lying. You lie or you ignore to correct lies you hear or misinformation you know are not true.
White Lies
This, he also, considered to be wrong. It involves deciding that you are responsible for another's person choice and you decide the truth for them because you believe you know better than them. This can result in terrible consequences, especially when it comes to serious matters like not telling your family member about their own deadly disease.
Faint praise
I found this to be the worst type of lying anyone can tell to another. It involves giving a praise to someone who doesn't deserve it, or endorsing a quality in someone that they don't have. Imagine this happening to you? You are learning writing and your friend keeps encouraging you to write because he doesn't want to hurt your feelings. This can waste years of your life and will shock you later when you discovered the truth about this lie.
This is a great read! It made me revise my moral conduct in regard to lying. I still lie but I am trying to be aware of it. In fact, I don't think you can never lie, especially when it comes to survival. I am no absolutist when it comes to morality. I think it is contextual. Imagine you are in a country where apostasy is forbiden and its cost is death, and you are asked by the police if you believe in the conventional faith of the state. Would you lie? If you lied, you would survive! If you didn't, you would be killed, and you will be gone!
I am assuming that Harris is discussing lying here on the interpersonal relationship between individuals because I don't think this can never work at the states level or in instaces like I mentioned above. This leads us to say that "morality, or at least lying is not universally wrong as Harris claims"
Great read though! Thought provoking and sparks an interesting discussion. He is a good writer, too! I love the style!
It's a book about the absolute immorality of lying. Sam Harris is a known absolute moralist. He believes that we can come to universal agreements about moral issues just as we come to agreements about scientific facts.
Sam Harris defines a lie as simply as all would agree, which is , "... believing one thing while intending to communicate another.”
He argues about his points by citing his and others' experiences of conversations that involved lying. Like this one: this is a story of a woman who bought a birthday gift to her friend from the hotel gift shop while she was staying at the hotel and didn't have time to go out and buy her a gift
“Amazing gift! Where did you get it?”
“When did you get them” she said
Surprised by the question, and by a lurching sense of impropriety. Sita sought to regain her footing with a lie. “Oh, we just bought them in the hotel gift shop”
The next words came from her innocent son, “No, Mommy, you got them in the bathroom!”
Imagine the faces of these two women, briefly frozen in embarrassment and then yielding to smiles of apology and forgiveness. This may seem the most trivial of lies- and it was- but it surely is doing nothing to increase the level of trust between these two friends…Sita; she will lie when it suits her needs."
It seems certain that such situations should never involve lying. And I agree!
Two types of immoral acts
"There are two types of moral transgressions we do. the bad things we do (acts of commission) and the good things we fail to do (acts of omission). We tend to judge the former far more harshly." Same goes for lying. You lie or you ignore to correct lies you hear or misinformation you know are not true.
White Lies
This, he also, considered to be wrong. It involves deciding that you are responsible for another's person choice and you decide the truth for them because you believe you know better than them. This can result in terrible consequences, especially when it comes to serious matters like not telling your family member about their own deadly disease.
Faint praise
I found this to be the worst type of lying anyone can tell to another. It involves giving a praise to someone who doesn't deserve it, or endorsing a quality in someone that they don't have. Imagine this happening to you? You are learning writing and your friend keeps encouraging you to write because he doesn't want to hurt your feelings. This can waste years of your life and will shock you later when you discovered the truth about this lie.
This is a great read! It made me revise my moral conduct in regard to lying. I still lie but I am trying to be aware of it. In fact, I don't think you can never lie, especially when it comes to survival. I am no absolutist when it comes to morality. I think it is contextual. Imagine you are in a country where apostasy is forbiden and its cost is death, and you are asked by the police if you believe in the conventional faith of the state. Would you lie? If you lied, you would survive! If you didn't, you would be killed, and you will be gone!
I am assuming that Harris is discussing lying here on the interpersonal relationship between individuals because I don't think this can never work at the states level or in instaces like I mentioned above. This leads us to say that "morality, or at least lying is not universally wrong as Harris claims"
Great read though! Thought provoking and sparks an interesting discussion. He is a good writer, too! I love the style!