Lying and intentions

Journal of Business Ethics · 1986 · Volume 5 · Issue 4

Abstract

In this essay I criticize recent attempts to prove that the concept of lying does not include the intent to deceive. I argue that examples by Isenberg and Carson fail to prove that one can lie without intending to deceive and, furthermore, that untoward consequences would follow if these authors were correct. I conclude that since intending to deceive is indeed a necessary condition of lying, the class of statements that constitute lies is smaller than what Isenberget al.would suggest. Hence the class of deceptive advertisements is also correspondingly smaller.

Keywords

Economic Growth, Recent Attempt, Untoward Consequence, Deceptive Advertisement

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