3 ms·

>A lie requires specific knowledge in the mind of the particular person uttering the sentence. Can you clarify? Are you saying it is impossible to ascertain th

>A lie requires specific knowledge in the mind of the particular person uttering the sentence. Can you clarify? Are you saying it is impossible to ascertain the intent of the speaker? I appreciate the distinction you are making, it is an important one. To lie is to speak a false statement, coupled with the intent to deceive. What is missing from your assertion is whether we can gage intent and how we do so. Intent is critical to understanding the degree to which we apply a corrective measure. It's the difference between manslaughter and murder.

yesenadam 8y ago
Are you saying it is impossible to ascertain the intent of the speaker? No, not at all. Just that for something to be a lie it needs 1. to be not true, and 2. for the person uttering it to know that it's not true. Hopefully that's entirely uncontroversial. Yes, how to find out what people know, desire, plan, intend etc is another question entirely. Another thing - I don't think you can always neatly divide people's utterances into something they know/believe vs something they don't. e.g. believing in god or not - some have varying levels of belief, depends on mood, some aren't sure what they believe etc, it's often not a simple, unchanging binary 'on or off' situation.