The Ethics of the Lie

Jean-Michel Rabate

"Lying is a common social manifestation that is fraught with contradictions: we lie quite frequently, but we hate-liars, and we detest above all being lied to. We know that most politicians lie (hoping that they lie reasonably, as it were) but when they are caught in the act, their careers are ruined. The common root of these phenomena goes back to the paradigmatic figure of the paradox: I am lying but I tell the truth when I say that I am lying. In The Ethics of the Lie, Jean-Michel Rabate examines the web of lies spun by the media, turns the microscope on the U.S. presidency, explores the dynamics of family lies, and even analyzes Hollywood's role in reenacting these dilemmas. Do we live in an age when disinformation has reached such a fevered pitch that we can dismiss everything presented as "fact" or "news"? In questioning this widespread skepticism, Rabate deconstructs the...

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