The Complexity and Simplicity of Truth

Everyone knows that each one of us has to be truthful all the time. But there are times or cases that it becomes hard for us to tell the truth so we tend to lie. It may be because we are afraid to hurt someone’s feelings by telling the truth or we are just afraid of what the others will think so we lie.

Lying is completely about telling false information while truthfulness is the act of being honest. There are advantage and disadvantage of lying and telling the truth.

When you tell the truth, you are able to tell things to someone without fear. It will be easy to you to share stories because you are not hiding something from someone. But when you tell lie, it is hard for you to tell information because you are afraid that someone might know or notice that you are lying. In exception, there are people who are good with lying that no one seems to notice that they are telling lies.

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Everyone knows that it is better to always be honest so it would be easier for you to work or associate yourself to everyone. But there are scenarios that we can’t help to tell lie in order to protect something or someone. For example is when you saw your friend stealing. You will be hesitant to tell the truth because if you did, you might lose your friendship. But if you were really a good friend, you will correct your friend and inform them about the mistake they did.

Another advantage of lying is that when you know something confidential, telling the truth to someone would reveal their secret thus it would be better to lie about it.

As a whole, society encourages individuals to strive for truth regardless of the consequences. Despite what society preaches, complete honesty is not what civilization needs. A simulation done by Gerardo Iñiguez at Aalto University in Finland aimed to discover how two types of lies, “white” lies and antisocial lies, affect social connections that exist within a civilization. “White” lies are defined in this study by lies that help the person being led to. Antisocial lies are considered to be beneficial to the person doing the lying. The study concluded that when only the truth is told, opinions become more uniform. That being said, diversity virtually ceases to exist. “White” lies are shown to have the effect of strengthening ties while antisocial lies tend to break ties.

When there are specific individuals to consider other than oneself, one must weigh the consequences of the truth or the lie for not only themselves, but the others involved. In certain situations it may be beneficial for an individual to lie to a friend to avoid hurt. More specific examples of appropriate times to tell a lie for benevolent reasons include compliments, and avoiding the brutal truth when it is not necessary. Society need lies to function properly and happily. Complete honesty is not a realistic goal nor is it healthy for those involved.

Similarly, not telling the “whole truth” for many seems immoral or wrong. This concept goes hand-in-hand with that of “white” lies. If information is not necessary for another person to know of if they will be harmed in any way by the information, it is not necessary to impart that information onto them. This is in no way lying. The definition of lying is a false statement that one makes consciously or intentionally. Because of this, a lack of statement is not the equivalent of a falsified statement. That being said, not telling the “whole truth” still comes with the negative connotation that lying has. This is yet another mistake on society’s part for condemning an action that could be beneficial to another human being on an emotional level.

Because of the complexity of truth on many social levels, absolute truth does not exist. Each level of society has its own accepted truth. Individuals hold certain things to be true that a majority of society might disagree with. What society considers to be true certain individuals or groups of people may disagree with. Truth is confirmed by many through their own life experiences and knowledge they have acquired. What may seem true to some may not be true to others. Many argue that there is nothing more to truth than people assert to be true. (Dean) Apart from one individual society, many cultures accept different truths concerning the same situation. For example two countries may argue over the other’s role in a war. There are too many points of view on any situation for absolute truth to exist.

The complexity of truth increases when there is less people involved and telling the truth is not as black and white as it seems. Although humans as a whole are taught to be honest, society requires some deception to function on a productive and healthy level and absolute truth is different for every social level. Therefore, much like how we perceive truth, lying can be necessary and beneficial for not only ourselves, but for others and society as a whole.