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>> It is not, in fact, "unambiguously a lie" to relate to others deBoer's grave (and admitted, and unambiguously real) misconduct without the full context of hi

>> It is not, in fact, "unambiguously a lie" to relate to others deBoer's grave (and admitted, and unambiguously real) misconduct without the full context of his mental illness. Coincidentally I've been discussing this very issue the past week. I asked the question "when is it lying to say something that is true?" The example I gave someone was this: You sleep in and arrive late to work. When asked "why are you late" you respond with "traffic was terrible, there was a crash and a backup" which is actually true on that day. The statement is true, but it may in fact be a lie. If you overslept so much that you would have been late regardless of traffic then what you've said is "I'm late because of traffic" which is a lie because you would have been late regardless of traffic. Excuses are often this kind of lie. Sometimes a true statement is a partial truth, but not the larger one that is being concealed while saying it. Another example: A friend is a therapist and someone in his office died and they're sending all the deceased clients (patients) to others in the office. They've been instructed to tell the patients that their therapist no longer works there as a reason for the change. Is that a lie? I think so even though it's technically true. They fear some people will be too upset at the truth. But IMHO therapists lie too much already and when this "lie" comes to light the clients will be even more devastated than just telling them the truth. My recommendation of course is not to follow those instructions - have some integrity. TLDR: When is it a lie to say something that is true?

lazyasciiart 5y ago
When it becomes not true if you explicitly add the words that the speaker knows the listener inferred in the communication context. In your example, those implied words are "The reason I was late is". The difficulty is in agreeing on or proving what those words were in that specific context, and whether the speaker knew it. It could instead of a case of mismatched assumptions based on different cultural backgrounds, which you see addressed in a lot of advice about working in other countries.

lazyasciiart 5y ago

When it becomes not true if you explicitly add the words that the speaker knows the listener inferred in the communication context. In your example, those implied words are "The reason I was late is". The difficulty is in agreeing on or proving what those words were in that specific context, and whether the speaker knew it. It could instead of a case of mismatched assumptions based on different cultural backgrounds, which you see addressed in a lot of advice about working in other countries.