Do we really have a moral obligation never to tell a lie

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Assignment - Philosophy Kantian Deontology Discussion

Respond to this prompt - A student once said to me after class: "so Kant would have been a vocal abolitionist but he still would have ratted out Harriet Tubman." The question she was raising was: Do we really have a moral obligation never to tell a lie? While we can all recognize the benefits of dealing honestly with one another, we have to look at some of the potential unintended consequences of total honesty. For example, would the duty not to lie extend to a scenario in which a murderer asks you for the whereabouts of his intended victim? Wouldn't answering honestly (assuming you knew the victim's location) make you at least partially responsible for the murder?

One of the main criticisms of Kant's moral theory is that total adherence to moral duty is far too rigid in the sense that it fails to take in the totality of the particular circumstances in a situation, and could very well lead to the scenario I outlined in another post about where one must decide whether or not to disclose to an ax-wielding murderer the whereabouts of his intended victim on the grounds that one must never tell a lie. I'd like to hear what the rest of you think about this.

Reference no: EM133221672

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