Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life

Bok, Sissela. Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life. 1978. 3rd edition. Vintage, 1999.
Sissela Bok’s groundbreaking work on the ethics of lying was written when an U.S. president being caught in a lie was not a ho-hum event in the daily news cycle. Bok is now in her late 80s, so it may be fruitless to hope that we will get a fourth edition of Lying that will cover all our recent innovations in deceit. Nevertheless, we would do well to take what she says to heart. Here is the short version of her test of a moral lie: a good lie is one that cannot be avoided and would pass a test of rational publicity that includes the person to whom the lie was told. It is not quite the absolute stricture against lying proposed by Augustine and show more Kant, but it would make most lies morally wrong—even ones that many people would find unobjectionable. For example, she is generally critical of codes of medical ethics that allow the physician license to lie to patients when he or she thinks it medically advisable. Such lies, she says, should be the subject of public debate and be agreed on beforehand. It is obvious that most political lies could not pass her test. It is too easy to rationalize that one is lying in the public interest if the public has not been asked about it beforehand. Besides Bok’s own lucid analysis, I found the Appendix in which she includes statements on lying by Augustine, Aquinas, Bacon, Grotius, Kant, Sidgwick, Harrod, Bonhoeffer, and Warnock extremely useful. 5 stars. show less

Is it ever all right to lie? A philosopher looks at lying and deception in public and private life -- in government, medicine, law, academia, journalism; in the family and between friends.
LYING is a penetrating and thoughtful examination of one of the most pervasive yet little discussed aspects of our public and private lives. Beginning with the moral questions raised about lying since antiquity, Sissela Bok takes up the justifications offered for all kinds of lies -- white lies, lies to the sick and dying, lies of parents to children, lies to enemies, lies to protect clients and peers. The consequences of such lies are then explored through a number of concrete situations in which people are involved, either as liars or as the victims show more of the lie. show less

Excellent, and a must read, especally by those who believe lies are opinions, therefore somehow legitimate.

But whoever said there had never been a book-length study of lying before this hadn't heard of Mark Twain's lifelong exploration of lying -- both as a practitioner, and as a demolisher of them.

Or of the earlier Lies & Truth by Marcel Eck.

Interesting subject, makes you think why more people don't read it.

Anthony Lewis reportedly found reading this book to be both worthwhile and interesting. He called it an 'important book'"