Note: The ethical judgments on this page refer exclusively to the action — never to the person who performs it. Every person possesses inalienable dignity, regardless of what they do or have done. Cf. Note on ethical judgments (German).
The lie is the intentional false statement made to a person. It violates the Personalist Norm, because it disregards the capacity for truth of the other and destroys interpersonality. It instrumentalizes language and thereby the person.
The personal-ontological analysis of the lie goes deeper than a merely moral condemnation. Truth belongs to the basic conditions of personal encounter: persons are essentially truth-capable beings — they can cognize reality and reach understanding with one another in the light of what is cognized. Language is the preeminent means of this understanding. Whoever lies abuses this means and thereby undermines the very foundation on which interpersonal relations are possible at all.
The lie is an instrumentalization in a twofold sense. It instrumentalizes language by destroying its relation to truth. And it instrumentalizes the person of the other by deliberately misleading their capacity for cognition. The one who is lied to becomes the object of a manipulation. They are undermined in their capacity for free and truthfulness-oriented response. The lie thereby violates the freedom of the other, which depends on truth in order to realize itself.
As a form of practical oblivion of the person, the lie reveals a profound deficit: whoever lies has lost sight of the someone-character of the other — or deliberately disregards it. The Personalist Norm demands that the other be affirmed as a person, which essentially includes treating them as a being capable of and worthy of truth.
The lie further destroys the trust that is indispensable for the Third Dimension of personhood — the free turning toward the other in love and self-transcendence. Where there is lying, the person can no longer open up in trust; interpersonality is poisoned.
Ontological classification
Superordinate concepts: Practical Oblivion of the Person
Ontological relations:
- violates: Personalist Norm
- disregards: capacity for truth of the person
- destroys: interpersonality, trust
- is a form of: instrumentalization
Chapter assignment: Chapter 5: Oblivion of the Person (German)
Perjury
Perjury is the deliberate false statement under oath and constitutes a grave offense against truth. Whoever commits perjury abuses an institution that rests on trust in the truthfulness of the person, and thereby undermines the foundation of common life.
From a personal-ontological perspective, perjury is especially serious because it turns the Second Dimension of personhood — the capacity for cognition of truth and for free response — against its own destiny. The person uses their freedom and their reason to pass off an untruth as truth. This violates not only the right of the other to truth, but also damages the moral integrity of the one swearing.
Perjury is an example of how the human being can turn their personal faculties against the good. It is an expression of the drama of freedom, which is capable of self-failure as much as of self-realization.
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology. Bexten 2017, pp. 176–182 (instrumentalization and the Personalist Norm).
Further sources:
- Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 110 (on lying).