Is stating something false = lying?

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Considering ethics, philosophy as well as when it comes to the law, what makes someone a liar?
Someone who tell lies is a liar, most would say, but how about when the person actually believes something considering false, and speaks and defends something which is considered false, would that make him a liar, if not, what would that make him?

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Last edited by claire-333 on 21 Apr 2009, 5:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Lying is stating a falsehood or a partial truth with the intent to deceive. Anyone can make an honest mistake and say (or write) something that is not true. That is error or ignorance, not lying.

ruveyn

Lying is a falsehood or partial truth with the intent to deceive, as ruveyn said.

Someone who speaks a false belief can still be held accountable for that false belief as if they lied in certain contractual agreements though, but I don't think they are held to that standard in general, just in specific instances, and certainly only if the statement is relevant(irrelevant lies don't even count in contracts, like if you are selling a building but the person just wants the land, you could say that Zeus came down from the heavens and built it, if it is irrelevant. Also, if the person already knows you lied but still goes forward with the deal, your lie is irrelevant). In any case, omissions of significant details are also relevant in situations that involve contracts.

Lying is strait up deceit, no matter how you paint it.

If you say something false because you are misinformed/ignorant to the truth, you aren't lying. If you say something false in order to deceive, you're lying..

A lie implies that the liar knows the falsity of the statement.

As George Costanza once said, "It's not a lie if you believe it."

A person who writes fiction knows that some of what he writes is not true. But his intent is to entertain, not to deceive.

ruveyn

Why state something is false when you can just neglect to mention certain things? Subtlety is so much fun...

I see lying as any statement made that is false and you know it and your audience does not. The bigger question is whether it is inherently wrong.

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Last edited by claire-333 on 21 Apr 2009, 5:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Probably most if not all lies are performed for some advantage. In that same category is suppression of true facts such as overenthusiastic government secrecy. In either case, reality suffers and usually for the purpose of the advantage of some individual or group.

You could take it further and divide it up by saying that it's only a lie if there's malicious intent... certainly the average NT wouldn't consider a "white lie" to actually be a lie, even though it is...

Right, fiction has to be considered as well. Well then, a lie is any statement intended to cause another person to hold false beliefs.

It's not quite that simple. Individuals can come to different conclusions depending upon their attitudes and experience and conditioning from the same information.

Which is why I included the word intended.

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