Volume 84, 2010
Philosophy and Language
Alexander R. Pruss
Pages 213-222
Lies and Dishonest Endorsements
I shall discuss the problem of the definition of lying and the formulation of the duty of truthtelling. I shall argue that the morality of assertion is a special case of the morality of endorsement, and that a criterion of adequacy for an account of lying is that it handles certain cases of dishonest endorsement as well. Standard
views of lying fail to do so. I shall offer an account of the duty of honest endorsement in terms of the intention to avoid falsehood. But, in the end, we may simply
have reason to go back to the naïve view that lying is saying falsehoods.