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Telling the Truth About Lying Essay Example

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Telling the Truth About Lying Essay Example
Telling the Truth about Lying
Why should one tell the truth if it’s one’s advantage to lie? This question caught my attention as I scanned through a thick, old and tattered encyclopedia. While I was sitting on a green comfy chair parallel to a wooden table, I pondered upon the said question coming from a renowned philosopher named Ludwig Wittgenstein who formulated the theory of truth. It was said that he spent his entire life answering the question which made me wonder how long it would take me to provide the answer to this query. This speculation then reminded me of one instance in my life where in I needed to lie for a certain purpose. At first, I was bothered by my conscience but later on I realized that I did the right thing. To be untruthful is inescapable in this world. Not a soul is capable of getting away with it. If truth be told, life as it is could not exist without lying. To lie is to deviate from the truth deliberately but it does not always follow that lying is bad.
Often, people say that honesty is the best policy and is defined as the act of telling the truth to the best of one’s knowledge. Coupled with the definition of honesty is the belief that telling the truth all the time is good because of certain reasons. Primary motive is that many consider saying the truth as an aid in improving one’s self. For instance, one project organizer asks one of the staff if the theme chosen for the occasion is well suited. Then, one of the personnel has the guts to tell the truth that a better theme is fitted for the event. The project organizer will then have a better idea, thereupon aiding to the betterment of the organized project. Likewise, saying the truth helps us to earn others’ trusts. According to Nathalie Himmelrich, in her article entitled Truth versus Honesty: Is there a Difference , even though the explanation of the word ‘trust’ does not distinctively take into account the word honesty, it is implied in the word. Similarly, stating what reality

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