Instructor:
This course will introduce the students to the idea of lying. Rather than approach lying as easily distinguishable from the idea of truth, the course will delve into a more murkier zone and ask how the idea of lying is related to other ideas in its neighborhood such as bad faith, misleading, trickery, counterfeit, fraud, ignorance, secrecy, or false implication. We will cover a representative of hypothetical and real-world scenarios that will enable the students to discern the nuances of speech and expression and better distinguish lies from contested ideas of truth as well as other forms of deception.
Readings will comprise weekly case studies which will cover over a variety of examples ranging from simple thought experiments that philosophers mobilize to make their arguments to real world instances of politics and contemporary issues of media bias. Some questions that the class will consider include: What does it mean to be true to ourselves? What does it mean to gain public trust and how does it relate to personal measures of truth telling? Do politicians lie or do they deceive and how does this difference matter? Is one lying when one’s opinion is based on misinformation? Is lying always morally wrong? Short exercises in interpretation of stylized dilemmas, excerpts from literary works, philosophical passages and public speech will accompany the weekly case studies.