Concerning a Pretended Right to Lie from Motives of Humanity by Assignment

Concerning a Pretended Right to Lie from Motives of Humanity by Immanuel Kant - Assignment Example This is due to the fact that a man who speaks the truth should not be seen as responsible for the consequences resulting from his/her honest answer. The harm caused to a person as a result of the truthfulness does not impose any moral or legal responsibility to the one who has told the truth, because in this case we are talking about an accident. This is due to the fact that a lie â€Å"always hurts another; and if not another man, at least man kind in general by making the source of all right useless† (Kant and Kroeger 12). It makes no sense to define a lie as the falsehood that harms another because causing harm is the very essence of the lie. Despite the fact that in some cases, a lie is seen as an opportunity to save a loved one, however the consequences can be quite severe, including the tragic ones. In particular, if someone in an attempt to save the life of his friend lied to a murderer about the location of his friend and yet the murder has happened, this person may be punishable under civil law. In this case, the person who told the lie is responsible for the consequences. Constants believes that in some cases, truthfulness may harm another person, but in fact truthfulness cannot cause harm because it is a formal duty. Harm can be caused only by an accident (casus) to which the veracity is irrelevant. For this reason, truthfulness should be considered as an unconditional duty in any