Self-study
Laila: Though lying may be unacceptable in most cases, there are exceptions: when lying brings about more good than harm, lying is morally permissible.
Summary
We’re given our principle as a conditional statement:
(1) If it causes more good than harm, then it’s okay to lie.
Find or Complete the Application
We need to find the answer choice that follows this principle. The correct answer will present us with a situation where a lie would cause more good than harm, and then conclude that it’s okay to lie in that situation.
14.
Which one of the following █████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████
a
It is morally ███████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ███████ █████ █████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██ █████ ██ ██ ██ ███ ██████ █ ███ █████ ██ ███
We know Marcus isn’t doing anything bad, but that’s not enough to prove it’s okay to lie. We need to prove that his lie would cause more good than harm, and we have no clue what the effects would be.
b
It is morally ███████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ █████████ █ ██████
We need to prove that Lane’s lie would cause more good than harm, and we have no clue what the effects would be. (B) might even imply that there are bad effects if his friend actually committed the crime.
c
It is morally ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████
Even if a lie affects only yourself, that doesn’t mean it will cause more good than harm. (C) makes no mention of what the effects would actually be, so it doesn’t fit with our principle.
d
It is morally ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████
This lie would help Thomas by preventing him from being unhappy and causing no other ill effects. Thus, it would cause more good than harm, and it would be okay to lie in this situation.
e
It is morally ███████████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ████ █████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ █ ██████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ███████
In this situation, lying could lead to both good and bad effects, but we don’t know if the good would outweigh the bad. We need the lie to do more good than harm for it to be okay, so we don’t know if it’s justifiable to lie in this situation.