Since the beginning of recorded history, men and women have debated whether lying is ever acceptable and if so, under what circumstances. Among the most influential of these intellectuals are St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant.
In North Africa in the years 396-430, an early Church father named Augustine wrote a series of treatises and books that have largely shaped Christian and Western thought. Augustine firmly believed that all lies are wrong, but allowed that some lies are worse than others and established eight categories of lies. He maintained that a person should never tell a lie, though even he struggled with this absolute prohibition.
More than 800 years after Augustine died, Thomas Aquinas took up discussion of the issue in Summa Theologica. Aquinas, relying on Augustine, concluded that there are three types of lies: lies told in jest, helpful lies, and malicious lies. Aquinas said all lies are wrong, but only malicious lies place the soul in jeopardy.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a German philosopher, took an even more extreme position than Augustine and Aquinas. For Kant, lying is never acceptable under any circumstances for any reason. Even when lying might seem to be justified in the minds of some, Kant argues that any lie always harms all people because it debases the source of law. Furthermore, when a person tells a lie, that person has destroyed his human dignity.
Theorizing about any subject or issue is often quite different from putting that theory into practical action. What happens when a person is faced with an actual situation in which he must choose a lie or the truth, knowing that his answer will determine whether another person lives or dies? Even then, the answer is not as clear as it may seem. Even then, good people may differ in their approach to truth telling and in their belief as to what constitutes the morally right course of action. Consider the differing beliefs of the Ten Boom sisters.
One of the most famous examples of the “good” lie is provided by the experiences of Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who helped hide Jews from the Nazis during World War II. A devout Christian who believed lying is morally wrong, Corrie nevertheless lied to the Gestapo to protect the Jews in her house. She reasoned that lying, though wrong, was justified because it was better than telling the truth, which would have caused the arrest ? and likely the execution ? of the Jews. Interestingly, Corrie’s sister, Nollie, disagreed. Nollie was also a devout Christian, but she felt lying was never acceptable. She believed that God would honor those who told the truth. Nollie’s veracity led to her arrest and the arrest of a Jewish woman, but six days later the Dutch resistance freed them both. Nollie saw her freedom and that of the Jewish woman as proof that God would never allow evil to befall truth tellers.
Thankfully, the vast majority of us will never face a situation like Corrie Ten Boom’s, when our choices to lie or to tell the truth could well be the difference between life and death. But in our daily lives we encounter less serious situations when lying may be (or at least seem) justified. For example, suppose Richard’s roommate, Sean, just broke up with his girlfriend. Sean tells Richard he doesn’t want to speak to his ex-girlfriend if she calls. A few minutes later, the phone rings. Richard answers the phone and Sean’s ex-girlfriend asks if Sean is home. What should Richard do? Most of us probably would lie and say, “No, Sean isn’t home. May I take a message?” Is the lie justified? Would it be better if Richard evaded the question? What if Richard equivocated and said, “I’m not sure exactly where Sean is,” since Richard does not, in fact, know which room of the apartment Sean is in at that exact moment? Are any of these statements by Richard acceptable?
Some people take a “commonsense” approach to lying, often used by utilitarian philosophers, choosing to lie only when the lie is less harmful than telling the truth. This approach looks at lying in context of the whole situation and allows the liar more flexibility and freedom. In the above example, this approach would justify a lie told by Richard if he truly believed it was better for everyone that he tell the lie. This approach is not without its problems, though. First, can we ever truly know what is “for the greater good”? Second, this approach seems to say that telling the truth and telling a lie are the same as long as the result is for the good. This attitude of neutrality toward lying and the dependence on ends to justify the means disturb more than a few people.
EXCUSE AND JUSTIFICATION
For those who believe that certain lies are acceptable, the basis of the acceptability ? that is, the “thing” that makes the lie acceptable ? is an excuse. Although justification is a type of excuse, it’s important to understand a fundamental difference between justification and other excuses. Justification embraces the lie and defends the telling of the lie as morally correct, whereas other excuses make no attempt to give a reason why the lie was a “good” lie. One type of excuse is “that what is seen as a fault is not really one”. For example, John tells a lie to a friend at a party. Two days later, the friend confronts John with the lie and John replies, “I was just joking around. You shouldn’t take seriously what I said.” Another type of excuse is that though there has been a fault, the person who told the lie isn’t to blame because he isn’t responsible. An example of this would be a lie someone tells while delirious from a fever.
Generally speaking, excuses point to four moral principles as defenses: harm, benefit, fairness, and veracity. In other words, all excuses fundamentally rely on one or more of those principles to explain why the lie was told. In the first case, a person may lie in hopes of avoiding harm to self or others. For example, David makes a 1.5 GPA in his first semester of college and tells his parents he made a 3.5 because he doesn’t want to be chastised. A person may lie to gain a benefit for self or others. The professor who lies or exaggerates in a letter of recommendation for a student who is trying to get a job demonstrates this type of lie. The third principle is fairness. A person might lie because he feels that lying is the only way to achieve a just end. For example, Sarah puts a false name on an essay she has written for a competition because she thinks the judges, who know her, will be unfair to her if she uses her real name. The final principle is veracity. The idea here is that a person will lie to preserve the truth. For example, telling one lie to undo the effect of a previous lie.
Compared to other excuses, justification functions under a separate set of rules. The principles mentioned above might pertain to justification, but justification involves something more. Above all, justification requires that the lie be made public and exposed to the judgment of reasonable people; by making public the lie and the reasons for the lie, the liar demonstrates his belief that the lie was just and seeks public justification of the lie.
LYING TO COMPETITORS, THE PUBLIC, AND THE GOVERNMENT
In the corporate world, lying is an important issue to be considered by businesses but by no means is it the sole issue. Considering the views presented to this point ? never tell a lie, lie only if it serves the greater good, and all points in between ? what viewpoint should businesses embrace, especially for-profit businesses that have shareholders? Should a company lie to the government about the dangers of a product if lying will boost sales, prevent regulation, or protect the company from lawsuits? Is it acceptable to lie to the public to ensure shareholder profits? Is it proper for a company lie to a competitor to gain the upper hand in a merger, a buyout, or some other business deal?
Lying to a competitor or the government can cause them to divert their maneuvers and can help in the strategy to run the competitor out of business or to “defeat” the government in the legal arena. Given the competitive nature of business in a capitalistic society, businesses may develop a survivalist mentality; an “us or them” approach in dealing with other companies and the government that results in the government and other businesses being viewed as enemies that must be either thwarted or destroyed.
Beyond the desire to survive, businesses want to thrive. To thrive, a business must increase profits and keep its shareholders happy. Traditionally, businesses have seen no way to reconcile maximization of profits and moral treatment of the public, the government, and the competition. Even when it is possible to do both, businesses traditionally have given first consideration to profits and have acted morally only if doing so doesn’t interfere with maximization of wealth.
Underlying all of this, of course, is the question of precisely what is a corporation’s duty to its shareholders. Is the duty to maximize profits or to make a profit? Do corporations have a duty to the public at large? Do businesses have a duty to the government or to competitors? If the answer to the latter two questions is yes, then what is that duty? Are the needs and wants of shareholders subordinate to that duty?
While most people think that turning huge profits is a corporation’s chief duty to shareholders, it is not the only duty. Cultivating trust and goodwill between the public and the corporation is something of value to many shareholders, and most people are aware of corporate contributions to schools, parks, charitable organizations, and so forth.
Some people have turned the whole question on its head, not asking if a corporation breaches its duty by not lying to maximize profits, but arguing that corporations breach their duty to shareholders when they don’t act in a morally responsible fashion. The argument contends that doing good for the community and being honest with the public, the government, and other companies makes the corporation look good in consumers’ eyes. Consequently, the consumers buy more often from the corporation, profits rise, and shareholders benefit. Though this argument may be sound, most companies still adhere to the belief that profits reign supreme and that maximization of profits is more important than telling the truth.
THE U.S. TOBACCO INDUSTRY
As was mentioned previously, there is considerable difference between discussing a moral issue like lying in the abstract and deciding how to put the theory into practice in the real, concrete, day-to-day world. To help students apply the foregoing moral issues to the real, business world, we turn our attention to the U.S. tobacco industry in the years leading up to 1998. We will examine the lies that were told by the industry, explore the excuses for those lies, and ask questions that go to the very heart of business ethics.
The sale of tobacco and cigarettes has been quite profitable to those selling it. Today “Big Tobacco,” with annual net income over 50 billion dollars, is one of the most profitable industries in the world. Despite the financial success of tobacco, the industry has been one wrought with controversy.
The basis for this case is the rather disturbing testimonies of several Chief Executive Officers in the tobacco industry during the 1994 “Waxman” hearings. In addition to these hearings, the executives were called back on the stand for what some thought would be an encore performance during the 1998 congressional hearings. The most recent round of hearings was a product of the class action suit brought by over 40 states to seek reimbursement from the industry for tobacco-related Medicaid expenditures.
The tobacco story is one filled with deception, lies, and money. Whistle-blowers, internal leaks, and questions of unethical marketing campaigns are just some of the elements the industry has brought into the media’s spotlight. This case presents a summary of the facts surrounding the hearings.
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