Reading and listening to this morning's news reminded me of a discussion in which I have participated several times. What is a "lie" and how should schools approach this definition?
Today's prompt was of course that the CDC has announced that Covid-vaccinated people need not wear masks. The immediate question is whether people who do not want to wear masks will claim that they have been vaccinated, That is, will they lie?
According to this article, a UCSD professor has said that they will which research seems to support. On the face of it, this seems a fairly simple discrimination. The choice is binary. A lie is a lie.
And yet ...
The answer to "Does this dress or pair of pants make me look fat?" is apparently always "yes", although at times, it might more accurately be "no". This is a "white lie" where the untruth is acceptable.
Which of course now introduces both a scale of mendacity, and the idea that the qualification of veracity depends on the intention of the speaker.
However, this particular misstatement is of course an opinion, after all "fat" is both a relative term and a subjective assessment. If the question were, "How much did you pay for that dress or pair of pants?", there is a specific amount and any more or any less would be incorrect.
If my budget was $30 and I spent S35, would I not still be correct in saying the item cost $5? I am not distorting the facts, although I may be evading providing a complete answer. Is this then a lie? If a student provides you with an accurate but incomplete account of an event, is s/he misrepresenting it? Possibly, yes. But is s/he lying?
And if a cup of coffee at 160º is hot, then 170º is very hot but 180º is clearly not "boiling". My favorite football player may not be the best, and his signature side-step not brilliant. After a long day, my bag does not weigh a ton and the traffic move at a snail's pace. Are hyperbole / litotes which are clearly inaccurate and untrue also lies?
And if a cup of coffee at 160º is hot, then 170º is very hot but 180º is clearly not "boiling". My favorite football player may not be the best, and his signature side-step not brilliant. After a long day, my bag does not weigh a ton nor does the traffic move at a snail's pace. Are hyperbole / litotes which are clearly inaccurate and untrue also lies? What does a student hear when you tell him/her that you have asked s/he raise his/her hand before speaking "a thousand times"?
Another issue is raised by an objectively and factually incorrect statement which the speaker believes to be true. If I tell you there are strawberries at the supermarket, but when you get there they have all gone, am I lying? What if my statement was true at the time, but not 20 minutes later? What if my statement was not true at the time, but I believed it to be so? What if a student tells you the window was not broken when s/he arrived, although we know that it was and that s/he simply did not look or pay attention on that particular day? I with my strawberries and the student with the window both believe that what we are saying is true even when it is not, however we do not know that.
For schools, this is more than esoteric. Recognizing good deeds and ascribing credit, and of course vice versa, usually relies on statements of authorship and accounts of specific efforts made. Discipline and honor codes depend on accuracy. Teacher and school investigations rely on witness statements.
Sadly, I think for schools this has become a nightmare situation. When grown-ups cannot agree on real v fake news, when "the big lie" enters into election rhetoric, and when flat earthers are given equal prominence to the entire scientific world, how can we as educators guide our charges onto a path of truth and virtue?
**Please leave your queries or comments below.**
Further reading
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/magazine/17FOB-onlanguage-t.html
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/truthiness-meaning-word-origin
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