Sunday, March 3, 2019

Lies Of Omission

Typically, people distinguish between two alleged forms of deception: lies of omission and lies of commission.  The former involves keeping information to oneself when sharing otherwise true facts, while the latter involves outright deception (in other words, incorrect claims about reality).  The problem with this two-fold categorization is that it treats certain non-lies as if they are lies after all.

A lie is a denial or distortion of the truth, and nothing more.  Therefore, a "lie" of omission is in no way an actual lie, but merely a withholding of information.  There is not anything intrinsically wrong with this according to Biblical ethics, whereas it is blatantly clear that the Bible classifies intentional deception as sinful (Leviticus 19:11).  It does not follow from having an obligation to not deceive people, which the Bible does affirm, that one must always divulge all information in all situations.

This means that omission can be used to great effect in interpersonal manipulation [1] without engaging in anything immoral.  For instance, in a business negotiation, someone might only reveal facts that benefit their negotiating position, despite never actually telling an untruth.  Moral obligations do not disappear whenever it might be convenient for someone to disregard them, but is impossible to have an obligation to go beyond one's obligations.  Since there is no obligation to tell all of the truth in all circumstances, there is nothing unethical about using omission in such a scenario.

Just because a thing is not inherently evil does not mean that there are no unpleasant consequences that might come about, though.  "Lies" of omission can still prove hurtful to some relationships if the person who had information concealed from them learns of this later on, so anyone considering omission should be willing to confront the potential difficulties that might arise in the future.  However, omission is not equivalent to lying, and thus should not be universally discouraged.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/09/what-is-manipulation.html

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