On Lying

My complete bafflement over the persistant and grandiose disinformation disorder permeating the country right now got me to do a little research on the psychology, philosophy, ethics and neural correlates of lying. It's was rather enlightening and in a way relieving to find so much material online characterizing the phenomenon of conservative political lying and the science behind such human behavour. Let me say this... We are not alone at DU in recognizing the madness. There are so many studies and articles that define and clarify the asininity of right wing lie pathology that I'm just going to leave you with three fascinating links on the subject.

I'll start with: Why We Lie: The Science Behind Our Deceptive Ways Deceptive Ways

This is a great general read from National Geographic that covers a wide view of why we all lie and why some are compelled to believe lies more than others... and much more.

Second: BBC Ethics Guide - Lying

This is a very nice compilation of ethical studies covering these topics:
Lying and truth-telling
Lying and ethical theory
Philosophers on lying
Lying under serious threat
Other types of lying
Lying and medical ethics

Some interesting philosophical points of view include St. Augustine and his graduated list of lies ranging from the pardonable lie to unpardonable mortal lie. I found it thought provoking that his number one most damnable lie was "lies told in teaching religion" Hmmmm! Another was Thomas Aquinas where he states that "Officious or helpful lies are pardonable". I guess that would make them purposeful if you needed to promote a "cause". It also covers Consequentialism and Deontologists.

Lastly: Neural correlates of deception: lying about past events and personal beliefs (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov PMC) about past events and personal beliefs (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov PMC)

This is a more "brain science" approach to lying. I came across this in the pursuit of philosophy and ethics but it's very interesting science.

I hope this stuff is useful; it's a whole lot more interesting than my writing so don't equate my blather with these well written articles. They do give insight into why it's such a shit storm out there.

D7