Volume 21, Issue 2, Fall 2007
James Edwin Mahon
Pages 181-194
A Definition of Deceiving
In this article I consider six definitions of deceiving (that is, otherdeceiving, as opposed to self-deceiving) and reject them all, in favor of a modified version of a rejected definition that avoids all of the objections to the previous definitions. According to this new definition, deceiving is necessarily intentional, requires that the deceived person acquires or continues to have a false belief, and must involve the agency of the deceived person; furthermore, the deceiver must know or truly believe that the false belief that the deceived person acquires or continues to have is false.