Monday, May 18, 2015

Truth

I've written many times that I considered truth to be a slippery thing.

The following question comes from that:  Can someone who claims to be dedicated to the truth be false?

In other words, if someone claims to be dedicated to the truth, can that person be, in fact, a liar?

You aren't a liar unless you really do know the truth about a matter and try to deceive someone else as to that truth by getting them to believe something that you know is not true.

Putting that another way, just because you are wrong about something, doesn't make you a liar.  A sincere belief in something false just means that you are making an honest mistake.

That might be disputed.  Some may argue that there's no such thing as an honest mistake.  If you are misled by a liar, does that make you a liar too?

The worse thing is to know the truth and to prevent someone else from knowing it.  That what makes you a liar.


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