Speech Matters : : On Lying, Morality, and the Law / / Seana Valentine Shiffrin.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Shiffrin, Seana Valentine,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Series: Carl G. Hempel Lecture Series ; 4
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.)

To understand one another as individuals and to fulfill the moral duties that require such understanding, we must communicate with each other. We must also maintain protected channels that render reliable communication possible, a demand that, Seana Shiffrin argues, yields a prohibition against lying and requires protection for free speech. This book makes a distinctive philosophical argument for the wrong of the lie and provides an original account of its difference from the wrong of deception.Drawing on legal as well as philosophical arguments, the book defends a series of notable claims-that you may not lie about everything to the "murderer at the door," that you have reasons to keep promises offered under duress, that lies are not protected by free speech, that police subvert their mission when they lie to suspects, and that scholars undermine their goals when they lie to research subjects.Many philosophers start to craft moral exceptions to demands for sincerity and fidelity when they confront wrongdoers, the pressures of non-ideal circumstances, or the achievement of morally substantial ends. But Shiffrin consistently resists this sort of exceptionalism, arguing that maintaining a strong basis for trust and reliable communication through practices of sincerity, fidelity, and respecting free speech is an essential aspect of ensuring the conditions for moral progress, including our rehabilitation of and moral reconciliation with wrongdoers.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter One. Lies and the Murderer Next Door -- Chapter Two. Duress and Moral Progress -- Chapter Three. A Thinker-Based Approach to Freedom of Speech -- Chapter Four. Lying and Freedom of Speech -- Chapter Five. Accommodation, Equality, and the Liar -- Chapter Six. Sincerity and Institutional Values -- Index