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BIDDEFORD, Maine

Philosophy professor David Livingstone Smith of ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ tells the truth about lying on Canadian radio

David Livingstone Smith
David Livingstone Smith

On January 2, David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, was interviewed on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s CBC Radio One for a program about lying.

Smith discussed the pervasiveness of lying among humans, noting that we most often lie about things that will affect the way that others perceive us. His conception of lying, he explained, is broad and includes such things as dressing to minimize what we believe are figure flaws and to accentuate complementary bodily features.

Lying is so widespread among humans, said Smith, that β€œdeception saturates our social lives.” But, he stated, β€œLying is a necessity…It’s an element of social intelligence; it’s an element of social skill.” In fact, he explained, lying is crucial to our ability to function as a social animal. β€œIf you pictured a world in which people did not engage in these sorts of deceptive practices,” he said, β€œit would be a really, really disastrous world.”

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