Telling the Truth: Ethics and Theories

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Running Head: TELLING THE TRUTH
Telling the Truth
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TELLING THE TRUTH
Telling the Truth
It has become rare to find someone who is consistent with saying the truth. Because of
the eroded ethic in saying the truth, organizations and people always call for justification to
ascertain what is said. It is beyond human imagination to fix the personality of someone to say
the truth but through learning of mora values, it is easier to say the truth. The most powerful
ethic is found to be that that supports telling truth. Truth telling is not a simple task; we must
learn and practice for ourselves before putting in action (Walker, 2010). Telling the truth is an
ethic that has been voted to have higher profits and can lead to a remorseless life. There are no
field that require truth saying, it is a general ethic that should be applied to every aspect of life.
This paper asses the various ethics available regarding telling the truth and uses the theories to
assess whether it is possible to say the truth or not. The question we need to ask ourselves is how
do people tell lies? More often, failure to telling the reality arise from the assumptions that we
make. We tend to assume that lying on small issue is not a problem, trying to tell the truth on
‘big deals’ and assuming other issues is not ethical. Telling the truth starts from within ourselves,
we don’t need to convince our minds to do something that is not correct.
Kant claims that truth is an agreement of cognizance with objects. The definition is an
illustration of the essence of saying the truth. Saying the truth is a personal ethic and
determination in combination. Telling the truth involves mind engagement, we have to focus on
what will benefit us and avoid drama. Dramas are experienced in simple conversations that are
never serious at all, it may be between friends or parents and children story telling (Denis, 2013).
Nietzsche comes up with the theory that explains the flexibility of our mind. Giving an example
of a pictorial presentation of an elephant, we cannot say the truth if we are unable to make our
minds as flexible as we can. Truth is a big picture, we cannot tell it with our small perception of

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TELLING THE TRUTH
self-satisfaction. To draw the real picture of truth, we need to focus on correcting mal mistakes
that we make. Nietzsche refers to small mistakes as lying and convincing our mind that it is a
small issue we lie on. Kant gives his theory of ethics in relation to the desire that human being
has. If one wants to be a lawyer, then he/she should attend a law school. More often e encounter
friends involving more drama in what they say to make their stories nice, at this point things that
are not real are included in story. The process of telling the truth starts from ethic consideration
rather than personal satisfaction. Truth can come along our way if we don’t develop the necessity
of influence winning. The desire we have towards our goals and objectives forces the mind to
create statements that can praise our dignity.
Above all, moral lessons begins at the stage when one is born. The character traits of
those around us can change our genetic behavior however immoral they are. 99% of people who
say truth, of which are rare to be found learn from their parents. It very simple to put things just
the way they are supposed to be. People just manipulate and complicate the truth with
consequences and personal desires hence telling lies. We don’t need to exceed our capabilities to
acquire what we desire instead we should use our weakness to explain how we should come up
with solutions (Hanna, 2000,). Truth is simple but telling the truth can be quit hard because we
are not ready to face consequences of our realities. The human brain is programmed to look for
simplicity, it tries to use any means to simplify things.
The most influential moral theories are “Categorical imperative” by Kant and “Principles
of Utility” by Bentham. The two theories are well taught in conjunction to personal position in
the society, and they talk more about staying away from negative moral behaviors in the society.
They both supported the ideology of existence of only one good think. Contrary, they do not
refer to the good thing that exist, the moral uprightness of an individual was the agreement.

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TELLING THE TRUTH
Telling the truth is one of the moral uprightness supported by the theories. Immanuel Kant’s
ethical theory contributes to moral laws and applies to everyone in the society regardless of
personal desires. The theory of human nature by Kant explains the ease of saying the truth.
As mentioned above, Kant aimed at reconciling morality in the society, this fits in our
project of saying the truth for Kant’s theory relies on human state of sensory nerves. The human
sensory nature is linked to external factors which Kant refers to as “Objects”. It comes out clear
that people have to interact with nature in almost every daily activity hence determining their
way of understanding things (Pavlich, 2017). Reasoning and the mode of communication plays
an important role in human beings whereby they use language to integrate their understanding of
nature. Reasoning plays an important role in determining whether one will lie or say the truth. In
simple terms, Kant suggested that we are responsible of doing thigs, things have mere chances of
determining our course. Linking this theory to Kant’s definition of truth as an object, we have the
ability to tell truth in all our statements. Sometimes, our desires drives us to doing things which
we’re not supposed to. The desire to get a job might make us to lie on the managers regarding
our experience to secure the job. Another example might be the desire to get things that are made
to people who are of a given age. One might decide to quote their wrong age in order to in the
price. Kant labels the desire to do things as “hypothetical imperatives” (Vanzo, 2010) and he
gives an example of someone who want to be a lawyer, probably they are required to attend
school and learn law before becoming a lawyer. Kant argues that the desire are great
determinants of human action, we have the choice to make between telling truth and lying
(Mahon, 2003). It is to our moral interest to lie and help others or ourselves. These are examples
that Kant gives regarding the categorical imperative theory, we choose not to lie even if we want
to satisfy.