Weighing The Consequences Lying, Chapter 4 Sissela Bok Contemporary Moral Problems Professor Douglas Olena
Chapter Preface What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church [ ] a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them. Martin Luther Falsehood, take it by itself, consider it as not being accompanied by any other material circumstances, nor therefore productive of any material effects, can never, upon the principle of utility, constitute any offense at all. Combined with other circumstances, there is scarce any sort of pernicious effect which it may not be instrumental in producing. Jeremy Bentham
Chapter Outline The Role of Consequences Systems
The Role of Consequences 48 According to Erasmus forbidding all lies is contrary to common sense. For utilitarians, an act is more or less justifiable according to the goodness or badness of its consequences. Their procedure for weighing moral choice is very similar to ways in which most of us do in fact approach many situations of moral conflict close, therefore, to common sense.
The Role of Consequences 48 Sidgwick justifies lying based on the consequences of the lie in that particular case. 49 Utilitarianism generates no controversies over how to define lying. Utilitarianism simply requires an evaluation of courses of action, be they deceptive or not. In choosing whether or no to lie, we do weigh benefits against harm and happiness against unhappiness.
The Role of Consequences 49 As soon as the questions become complicated the utilitarian method offers us no help. It becomes increasingly difficult to measure the consequences. Utilitarians are in as much conflict with other utilitarians over complex issues as anyone else. 50 A second reason to be wary of a simple-seeming utilitarian calculation is that it often appears to imply that lies, apart from their resultant harm and benefits, are in themselves neutral.
The Role of Consequences 50 The principle of veracity contradicts this facile treatment of lies. However for the utilitarian there is a way out of this dilemma. There would be no need to see this presumption as something mysterious or abstract, nor to say that lies are somehow bad in themselves. Utilitarians could view the negative weight instead as a correction, endorsed by experience, of the inaccurate and biased calculations of consequences made by any one liar.
The Role of Consequences 51 Giving the money to the hospital instead of to the jockey club as promised. Though in this artificial scenario it is difficult to see any negative effects, the effects to the liar are underestimated. 52 There are risks to the liar of personal discomfort and loss of integrity, of a greater likelihood, however slight, of having to lie again to shore up the first lie; and of a somewhat diminished resistance to lying in the future.
Systems 52, 53 Many have labored to erect systems: to find a method by which to judge moral choice, or some single principle from which judgments can be derived, or some hierarchy among principles so as to resolve conflicts. In this way, methods, principles, and priority rules have sprung up, forming elaborate and hotly debated structures.
Systems 53 The problem with systems is that when we have to make difficult moral choices they give us little help. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that systems, or overriding principles such as utility, or priority rules among principles, lead us to clear conclusions, much as the mind strains for such a result.
Systems 54 Uncertainty and imprecision beset hard moral choices. I believe that any method, to be of help, should originate with the actual choices people make. It should have to look at the actual excuses they give, to themselves and to others, the arguments by which they appeal to principles, and the means by which they evaluate such arguments when others make them.
Systems 55 The questions which I shall ask of justifications advanced for different lies will, in the end, be questions of benefit and harm, questions asking why lying matters and what it does to individuals and to institutions.
Systems 56 A good place to begin is with the large category of white lies. It demonstrates both the futility of trying to rule out lies altogether and the shallowness of the intuitive utilitarian approach.